Sweetened Sweet Potatoes (Dreams 07/27/06)
Janet Kuypers, 07/27/06
so six of us
went out to eat,
me and a date,
Jocelyn and her date,
and another woman with her date,
and we were at this large dinner hall
and out table was set up
like a long rectangle
all I know is that
Jocelyn was to my right
and when I took a bite
of the mashed sweet potatoes,
it tasted syrup-sweet,
like they added a cup of sugar
to my serving alone
I took one bite
and was repulsed
by all of the sugar
that was added to my food,
and I said something
about how repulsive it tasted
and Jocelyn, sitting next to me,
thought I was crazy for complaining
I told her to try some
to see how over sweet it is
and her response
was that this was the way
mashed sweet potatoes were made
(and I thought:
sweet potatoes were already sweet,
why make them sweeter?)
and she started making fun of me,
knowing I am a vegetarian and
putting a piece of white meat
on her fork and asking me
to try it, you know,
in case I don’t know
what foods taste like any more
and I’d take her jabs in stride
maybe my complaint did sound silly
but she wouldn’t stop making fun of me
and the next thing I knew
she was standing,
walking around the table
with one or two more people
while she’s making fun of my comments
and that’s when I remember
getting really angry,
getting up
and walking over to her,
stopping her
by grabbing her with one hand
and almost threateningly
telling her to shut up
is that what I get
for complaining about my food?
