How do I love thee? Let me count the wheys
And the curds too of course. But unlike Miss Muffet
Most of us don’t have a tuffet and will eschew
The watery by-product in favour of the solids.
Whether cow, or goat, ewe or oat (or even cashew)
Salted and matured, they coalesce to form
An ambrosia of fermented lactose
Deliquescing in delicatessens the world over.
Where there is milk there is cheese
And where there isn’t there is stinky tofu
Every cuisine has its curdled goodness.
We fall headlong in love with the strong pong
The ooze, and the infinite stretch
As pizza slice is pulled and toastie halved.
Who isn’t fond of a fondue,
Or hasn’t suffered the collapse of a soufflé
Suffused with whiff of old plimsoll
And a hint of garlic and white wine?
Tangy & crunchy, piquant & punchy,
A cheeseboard is a smorgasbord
With a lexicon all of its own
Truckle, tomme, brie, reblochon
Taleggio, stilton, I could go on & on
But you can have too much of a good thing.
Luckily, for that, there are statins.
[This is a Featured Poem from our Spring 2024 Poetry Contest.]
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