Butter

I was listening to NPR one day and they had the lady on that was the poet lauriet for the Obama innaguration, Elizabeth Alexander. Although you would think that she would be some sort of fabulous intellectual soul, she read one of her poems which simply made me smile, not cower in feelings of stupidity. It was titled 'Butter' and here, I thought I would share it:

Butter
My mother loves butter more than I do,
more than anyone. She pulls chunks off
the stick and eats it plain, explaining
cream spun around into butter! Growing up
we ate turkey cutlets sauteed in lemon and butter,
butter and cheese on green noodles,
butter melting in small pools in the hearts
of Yorkshire puddings, butter better
than gravy staining white rice yellow,
butter glazing corn in slipping squares,
butter the lava in white volcanoes
of hominy grits, butter softening
in a white bowl to be creamed with white
sugar, butter disappearing into whipped sweet
potatoes, with pineapple,
butter melted and curdy to pour over
pancakes, butter licked
off the plate with warm Alaga syrup. When I picture
the good old days I am grinning greasy
with my brother, having watched the tiger chase his tail
and turn into butter. We are Mumbo and Jumbo's children despite
historical revision, despite our parents'
efforts, glowing from the indside out, one
hundred megawatts of butter.

I don't know why I like this poem so much, probably because I am incredibly immature and it made me smile, but that's okay. I like the fact that such a high-brow poet could write something so simple; even though she's composing for Obama, she still thinks about weird things like butter.

I honestly think that the butter poem is the funniest thing of my life, probably not though because my life is a little more interesting than that. I really did like hearing this lady read it on the radio though, because it just made me laugh.