Class II

Knobbly, misshapen, not the right shade of green,
I fell into the wrong hole in the sorting machine.
An unkind accident of my vegetable life,
Deemed unfit to be chopped by a Michelin-starred knife.
On special offer, “Buy two get one free!”
A budding Picasso carves a cock into me.
Left alone on my pitch of fake, plastic grass,
All too keenly aware of my lower class,
A bright yellow sticker announces my reduced fate.
The shop’s clock ticks on, past my expiry date.
Left out to rot in the skip with the fruit,
A lonely cucumber next to some sad beetroot.
A victim of vegetable snobbery, I despair
Of this consumer society that just doesn’t care.

Note

90 million tons of perfectly edible food are wasted every year in Europe, while people starve. And they say the “free market” is the most efficient means of production?

___________________________________________________________________________

You can help support the Socialist Party by buying a short book of my poems, ‘Little Red Poetry’:

Tags: food, poetry, waste