To end this heavy week on a light note, here’s a poem by my father on the transcendental meaning of pizza. Enjoy:
Pizza
By Scott Bates
Pizza is our mandala.
We circle the square
When we take it from the box.
We square the circle
When we place it on the table.
We breathe its blood
Like Aztec gods about to devour the sun.
We set the table,
We light the candles,
We pour the wine.
Galaxies whirl out of chaos,
Uranus howls,
Aphrodite rises from seas of anchovies.
Dante and Beatrice arrive
Before the golden rose.
We sit down,
We toast each other.
We drink the blood of the sky.
We eat the body of the earth.
Credits: The poem appears in Scott Bates, The ZYX of Political Sex (New Market, TN: Highlander Research and Education Center, 1999). The image can be found at www.realdeepdish.com/2011/02-13-new-nasa-photo-of-sun-reveals-it-is-a-pizza.