The discussion arises from the discovery of grapes
misplaced in my chicken salad.
A query rises within me,
one of disbelief:
What heresy is this?  What sordid thing?  What mockery of food as it should be?

And so I ask,
“Wait, what are these?”  I have impaled the offending fruit upon my fork
for public display and perhaps humiliation.
Disdain fills my expression and seeps into my voice.
“Grapes,” comes the arrogant reply, or so I judge it as arrogant.
“Yes, I see. They have been misplaced in my chicken salad.”
“No, they belong in it.”
“No, they belong in jellies and jams, and in the form of wine.
They have no place in chicken salad”
“They always belong in chicken salad. For this they were created.
It raises chicken salad to a higher level.”
“I believe you have your raising and lowering confused. Fruit and chicken have
no place together and should be kept separate one from the other.
It is the proper way of things”
 
I consume the salad while the heretical grapes are consigned
to the outcast side of the plate,
relegated to their purgatory
 
There is a considered pause
 
“Orange chicken,” comes the dry reply.
“Okay, some fruit and chicken belong together.”
“Ha! Do you want to talk about raisins?”
“Not particularly, no.”
And lunch continues


© by Timothy McQuade.
Used with the author’s permission.