Baby Formula

by Franco Bertucci

I tried some yesterday
and now I know
why no baby who has ever had
a taste from his mother will take it.
It tastes like fish fertilizer,
perhaps not even that good.
(Ask my daughter, she has tried both.)

And you tell me
that across the land
this is what babies eat.
And it's not even cheap.
And it flies off the shelves.

I wanted to weep in anguish
and visit the formula factories
with gasoline and matches.
I wanted to run from house to house
and shout-

Have you tasted this?

Awkward Guy

Poems and other embarrassing things. 2011 Franco Bertucci