Welcome to Cozy Poetry Corner by Debra A Winter (Richter)

(In this whimsical yet sobering piece, Chef Blue‑Gill serves up a satirical “ocean soup” seasoned with humanity’s waste — a recipe we’d better stop following.)

“A Recipe for Disaster: Ocean Soup“

Good afternoon, I’m Mr. Blue-Gill, your teacher for today.

We are going to cook a special uneatable ocean soup flambé.

First, a little about myself; I’m a Master Chef of Ocean food.

I scurry the ocean floor for ingredients when I’m in the mood.

~

The ingredients come from our human beings up top.

I’ve picked out the absolute best from their grocery store crop!

We need a vessel to hold our soup; those unkind people sink them all the time.

I chose an ocean liner because it’s already primed with slime.

~

Next, we will add fifty nasty barrels of toxic waste and motor oil;

These make a soup base that just won’t spoil.

Now, we’ll add twenty-five fancy cars, fried to a crispy crunch.

One hundred railroad cars minus the train for an added punch.

~

Stirring all well, yet spices are still missing; like surfboards and sailboats lost at sea.

And a spy balloon from China, that the human government didn’t see.

Our special non-eatable ocean soup flambé is about done.

I suggest that eating this garbage soup is not healthy nor fun.

~

It will rot your teeth, eat away your scales, and ruin the lungs of the biggest whales.

It will ruin ocean life as we know and all its sleepy story tales.

This is the soup Mr. Blue Gill the Chef doesn’t recommend!

But he has a message for humans he wants to send.

~

Tell them to quit throwing their human junk down here!

Do you hear me, humans? Do I make myself perfectly clear?