Wednesday 26 March 2014

"I was trying to be healthy"

December 2013 I moved into my own flat. It was a huge move and living on my own was a big change for me. The idea of food shopping seemed quite surreal. My friend Bianca and I went to the local Asda near my flat in Kingston and did some intense bargain shopping. I decided to create my own nonsense poem on my experience of living on my own and learning to deal with groceries and keeping up with my own meals. I wrote it in the style of Michael Rosen aiming it at an audience of young children just like him. I wanted to ensure that I had a moral foundation behind my poem just like Michael Rosen so I decided that learning to live on your own and understanding when not to be tempted was a perfect lesson to be learnt.

So here goes...

I wanted to make my flat super original and girly,
Quirky,
The shabby chic look I saw in the magazines.
So, I went to a home furniture store in Kingston.
Surrounded by little trinkets, I filled my basket up with candles and bowls.
I saw this beautiful glass deep bowl.
PERFECT I screamed in my head.
Ooooooh I know what I would use with that.
I could display all my healthy foods I had bought.
Just like Snow White, I can have the shiny red apples with the bananas draped over the sides.
SOLD.
went to the till and paid my £8. It was on sale by the way.
I am an amazing bargain hunter.
So there we go. On the bus, staring at my bowl.
Jittering and overly excited to get home and fill it up with all my fruit.
Rush through my front door and unload my shopping.
Placing the bowl neatly in the centre of the table I stare at my creation. LUSH

1 week later. I haven't eaten any of the fruit. Just still staring at its' beauty.
But what is that smell?
Smells like an old flip flop which had been marinated in out of date mustard and left in fish water overnight.
Ewwwwweeeeeee that pongs!!
Right, time to diagnose the situation.
Picking out the fruit. It's green and mouldy!!
Ahhhhh nooo. All that beauty has been ruined.
What a waste of money on fruit!
Dammit, "I was trying to be healthy".
Never mind.
Right, fill it up with water, soak, rinse, scrub, rinse, dry. Place back on the table.
Now what do I fill it up with??
IDEA!!!
Those sweets my mum put in my Christmas stocking.
Mmmm, yummy!
Haribo's, Chewits, Lollies, Toffee.
Now that's what I am talking about.
So it's filled up.
They won't go mouldy and green! I am so clever ahaha

But the sweets are just staring at me.
The Harbio's are calling my name.
Paige, EAT ME!
Like Alice and Wonderland when the label tells her what to do. The sweets wanted me to do the same.
I gave in.
I grabbed the bowl. Sat on the sofa.
Carefully unwrapping them all.
Scoffing them in my mouth.
"Arghhhh uhhh pheets areee ickingg ma eeff ugevaaa"
I couldn't speak.
The sweets were sticking my teeth together, I couldn't prise open my mouth.
After a few moments, my mouth released.
And breathe.
Oh.
The sweets are all gone.
Dammit. "I was trying to be healthy!"

I took inspiration from this poem mainly from The Chocolate Cake. I wanted to explore the idea of greed and not evaluating the consequences of your actions. The entire idea of the bowl was to fill it up with something healthy. However, it was used for the exact opposite. Human instinct of temptation was displayed through the use of the rotten fruit and the sweets. I used the line "I was trying to be healthy" on both occasions to demonstrate that the thought track of Paige, myself, was not really to be healthy, it was too look good. That is why she was so easily tempted. Children are easily tempted into certain things, especially in regards to food due to their innocence and naivety and just like Michael Rosen I used the bowl as the metaphorical representation of the moral significance behind the food.

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