Thursday, March 30, 2017

Latitude 30 Inspired by Steve Scafidi

For my freshman composition class we had to write a poem inspired by Steve Scafidi's "Latitudes of Desire." At first I though it was a little weird, but I enjoyed writing this poem:

Latitude 30

The pizza server makes his way around the world
to deliver the enormous pie to my table
He walks across the cool waters of the North Pacific Ocean
He’s my savior from this hunger that’s inside of me
He walks through rural China, through the rice terrace fields
The workers of the rice terrace fields glean at my pizza
My pizza is similar to their scallion pancakes, although vastly different
My pizza is topped with tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, tomato sauces
Sausage, pepperoni, and a variety of herbs top it off as well
The pizza server passes through the snowcapped mountains of Nepal
The hot pizza steams in contrast to the freezing environment it passes by
The server passes though the poverty stricken villages of Pakistan
My stomach rumbles, but I can hear the rumbling of the children’s’ stomachs louder
I wish I could tell the sever to leave the pizza at the village, but the server
Is so        far         away
The server passes through Jordan
The dry, arid environment stands in direct contrast
With the greenery that I am used to in Florida
But, there’s a beauty to it – the plateaus, and the desert sand are nearly as red as the bubbling pepperonis
The patches of green, fertile areas are similar to the oregano, and basil baked into the crust of the pizza
The people who the server passes by look at him strangely
His hair is dyed – black
With streaks of blonde
He has a tattoo along his arm – a woman
His nose is pierced – and so is his eyebrow
The sever passes through the Nile river – again walking on water
He passes the Great Pyramids and I am more mesmerized by them than the pizza – for a while
They are an ode to the ingenuity of man – something that has stood the test of time – like pizza
The server passes through the ancient cities of Libya
The desert of the Sahara seems impossibly hot – almost as hot as the pizza
Although, to the North a cool breeze passes by him – ruffling his hair
It comes from the beaches of Libya, where golden brown beaches meet impossibly blue oceans- the place where Geb meets Poseidon  
He passes through the deserts of Algeria, and Morocco – he seems to slow down as pangs of hunger hit my stomach, and speed up as I watch the wonders of the next region
He crosses the shifting waves and currents of the North Atlantic Ocean
He walks along the sand of Jacksonville Beach – a wave builds up behind him as saliva builds up in my mouth
As the wave crashes in the background he stops at my table - a drop of saliva almost crashes from my mouth onto my resting menu

But, as the ocean fades from view – I wipe the saliva from the corner of my mouth

----
Chance Preshia 

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