Poem: "All You Can Eat"
This poem came out of the November 1, 2011 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a string of prompts from the_vulture. It was sponsored by Shirley Barrette and Anthony Barrette. The poem references a common way of making offerings to Yemaya. Note: This poem is about pr0n, shrimp, politics, and voodoo. It's funny but vulgar in places. If those things upset you, then you might want to skip it.
All You Can Eat
It started out with the jumbo shrimp,
otherwise known as prawns,
and the cleverness of spelling porn as pr0n
to get past the censors.
Before you knew it, there were
deep-fried pr0ns,
sweet and sour pr0ns,
and all-you-can-eat pr0n jambalaya.
There was sushi in the raw
and "Put another shrimp on the Barbie!"
and "The end is near! Do you have your pr0n?"
This would have been well and good
had BP not broken the ocean
by spilling millions of gallons of oil
into the Gulf of Mexico
and topping that off with a chemical slick
to disperse the evidence.
The powers that be
being what they were in Washington, D.C.
made much noise and next to no action
about the incident.
Yemaya was not so understanding.
When her raft of offerings arrived
with its blue-and-white ribbons all draggled,
the coconut and watermelons dripping with oil,
and some of the shrimp having two heads,
she took one look at the mess and yelled,
"What the fuck is this shit?!?"
Whereupon Yemaya flung a curse, and suddenly
there was no more pr0n to be had anywhere
and the perverts of the world were in an uproar
because the pr0n must flow.
Much shouting and waving of arms later,
a houngan reported the connections between
the pr0n and the prawns and the two-headed shrimp
and the mightily pissed-off orisha of the seas.
The next day, the state of Texas executed BP.