The Wordsmith's Forge

This poem is spillover from the June 1, 2021 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from janetmiles. It also fills the "Caretaking" square in my 6-1-21 card for the Cottoncandy Bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by Anthony & Shirley Barrette. It belongs to the Shiv and Mercedes threads of the Polychrome Heroics series.


"Nourish All Those Things"

[Monday, March 21, 2016]

Shiv had just finished patrolling
the neighborhood for Boss Finn,
and it was still pretty early.

She was out and wouldn't
be back until the afternoon.

He found Fred in the living room,
shuffling through some flyers for
various Mercedes restaurants.

"What's up, Couch?" he said.

"I'm trying to find a safe place
to get lunch," Fred muttered.

"Oh," Shiv said. "Yeah, I can
see why that's a touchy topic."

A few weeks ago, someone had
served Fred a salad contaminated
with meat, and it made him sick.

"It shouldn't be this hard just
to find safe fuel," Fred grumbled.

"Food is not just fuel," Shiv said. "Food
is about family, community, and identity. We
nourish all those things when we eat well."

Fred sighed. "I remember when that
was the case for me," he said. "I thought
I was doing okay with vegetarian food,
but last month ... kind of shook me up."

"Can I cook something for you?"
Shiv offered. "I cook for soups
a lot, friends and family, plus
I have teleporters following me
around like cats chasing a tuna can."

He didn't often offer to help people,
but he enjoyed cooking and for
whatever reason he liked Fred.

Sometimes Shiv surprised himself
with how much he had changed
just over the last couple of years.

"I wouldn't want to be a bother, and
I was thinking of a cold lunch," Fred said.

"So, I could make a salad," Shiv said.
"What kind of stuff do you eat? I know
you're vegetarian, but like human food
or whatever capybaras eat or both?"

"A combination of both," Fred said.
"Mostly fresh vegetables and fruit,
grains, some edible grasses ..."

"That doesn't sound too hard,"
Shiv said. "We could fix something."

"Capybaras are water lovers," Fred said.
"They live in marshes near lakes or rivers,
and they eat wetland plants or nibble twigs.
The wedge head lets them push through
dense thickets and sort through the plants.
Sometimes I like to pick through food, but
it's hard with everything flat on a plate."

"Hmm," Shiv said. "I've got an idea.
If I could find a way to stand things up,
and bunch together several different foods,
would that be something you'd like to try?"

Fred tilted his head. "That does sound nice."

"What sounds nice?" Zipper said as
he ambled into the living room.

"I'm making a stand-up salad
for Fred, and he's willing to try it,"
Shiv said. "You wanna help me
shop for ingredients? I know we
don't have everything I need here."

"Sure, grab hold and let's go,"
Zipper said, holding out an arm.

"Let me check the kitchen first,"
Shiv said. "That'll give me
a better idea what I need
to buy and what we have."

"Whenever you're ready,"
Zipper said, following him
into the kitchen to browse.

Shiv jotted down a list of
foods that were long and thin,
including some wetland plants.

The kitchen had asparagus,
of course, but that was it.

Shiv needed craft supplies,
too, for the presentation.

"I'm ready," Shiv said.
"Couch, we're heading out."

They went to a big market first,
where Shiv found lemongrass
and bright pink organic roses.

Aidan had barley grass and
timothy grass growing in pastures,
and all of his land was organic.

There was even a stand of
cattails by a spring, so Shiv
gathered some of those too.

Then they went to the Recycle Bin
for more supplies and workspace.

They made it back to the house
a little before lunch time.

Zipper went to sit with Fred
while Shiv puttered around in
the kitchen arranging everything.

"Okay, come and get it," he called.

The table was set with a bowl of salad
to share, made from a bed of mixed leaves
with asparagus, lemongrass, cattails,
and rose petals scattered on top.

A bottle of raspberry vinaigrette sat
nearby, the same pink as the roses.

Fred's setting had a concrete block
painted white with a blue china pattern,
its two holes filled with glass pebbles
of blue and white to hold the stalks.

There were bunches of timothy
and barley grass, asparagus spears,
cattail leaves, and lemongrass bulbs.

Big pink roses still on the stem made
a vivid contrast against the green.

"Oh," Fred said. "It looks delicious."

Shiv grinned and waved him
to the table. "Well, dig in."

"It's so ... can I take
a picture?" Fred said.

"Why?" Shiv wondered.

"I would like to share it with
other primal soups," Fred said.
"Sometimes we have a hard time
finding the right food. You didn't
just make a salad, Shiv, you made
a new style of serving dish and
a whole different presentation."

Shiv shrugged. "Anyone could
have done that. Go ahead."

"Yes, but you're the one who
actually did it," Fred pointed out,
then snapped several pictures.
"Thank you. This helps a lot."

Then he dug into his lunch,
narrow muzzle easily pushing
through the dense plants, bending
them aside with surprising dexterity
to pick out the ones he wanted.

Shiv drowned his salad in
raspberry vinaigrette and
started eating. There were
enough crisp and juicy things
that he didn't mind eating
a few leaves along with them,
but he'd sort of picked out
the best parts with the tongs.

"This is quite good, Shiv,
thank you," said Zipper.
"I really like the rose petals.
I think rosewater would
dress up the vinaigrette."

Shiv thought about it. He'd
had things with rosewater at
Indian and Middle Eastern places.

"Yeah, I think you're right," he said.
"That goes well with fruity flavors."

Fred was making happy little sounds,
humming and snuffling and grunting
as he nosed through his stand-up salad.

"I'm glad you like the food, Couch,"
Shiv said, grinning. "It's easy to do."

"You don't think eating this way
is ... too atavistic?" Fred said.

"Who cares?" said Shiv.
"I've pulled cattails out of
a ditch by hand and ate them,
just like the Omaha used to do.
Nobody calls that atavistic."

"Good point," Zipper said.

"Yeah, people just pick on
primals because it's easy,"
Shiv said. "They're idiots.
After all, everyone needs
to eat, and this is good food."

"I think this is a way to nourish
those things you mentioned
earlier -- family, community,
and identity," said Fred.

"Yes," Zipper agreed.
"Food brings us all together."

* * *

Notes:

"Food is not just fuel. Food is about family, food is about community, food is about identity. And we nourish all those things when we eat well."
-- Michael Pollan

Capybaras are herbivores, selectively feeding on favorite plants.

Many parts of the cattail plant are edible.

Edible grasses include Bent, Wheat, Slough, Brome, Crab, Switch, Canary, Timothy, Blue, and Bristle grasses. You can make grasses into a juice by grinding them up, but don’t swallow the fiber.

Barley Grass and Timothy Grass can be sprouted or juiced.

Lemongrass has a bright citrus flavor.

Asparagus has many health benefits.

Edible roses add color to a salad.

Flower arranging is fun to learn. A food-safe way of stabilizing stems is pushing them into a layer of glass pebbles. Concrete blocks come in various styles, of which the most common has two large holes.

Cinderblocks can be painted with china patterns using a stencil technique.

Food-safe paints should be used on planters that will grow food. Finding nontoxic paint can be a challenge here, but Terramagne has more options.

Wild salad can be made by foraging seasonal plants.

Edible flowers are popular in salads.

Enjoy a recipe for Rosewater Salad Dressing.