Peanut butter and love poem

Welcome! Happy Poetry Tuesday, everrrybody.

Wendy suggested I try one of Jared's classic snack combinations: peanut butter stirred into vanilla yogurt.



I used some more of the fancy Cream-Nut peanut butter mentioned in 2 previous posts. Normally I only keep chunky peanut butter in the house, but I'm glad I had this (relatively) creamy brand on hand, as it seemed to mesh with the yogurt more soothingly than chunky might have.

Notice my giant yogurt tub? I really prefer full-fat-cream-on-top vanilla yogurt, but it's hard to find in single-serving containers. I had to buy the big guy. Yogurt doesn't have to be a diet food, y'all! Demand single-serving full-fat yogurts!



Dear Jared,

Your snack idea is a good one. I like how the richness of the peanut butter tastes in the tangy yogurt. I kind of wonder if a sweeter peanut butter brand would be better, though. The Cream-Nut's honest nuttiness gets a little overpowered by the crazy sweetness of the yogurt. Maybe I should try plain yogurt next time. Also, this took a lot of stirring. I guess I'd need a blender to really get the textures to meld. The snack is a little too much work when I am dealing with a giant yogurt that needs to be decanted into a smaller container before the pb can be added, but that's my problem, not yours. I'm glad Wendy mentioned this combo to me. Keep up the inventive snacking!

Your friend,
Jennette


And now to the poetry. Today's snack reminded me of another poem I wrote when but a tender teenager. I was seventeen and romantic and nerdy, mad for peanut butter and certain boys, and could not stop writing love poems (not much of this description has changed). I suppose I should be too embarrassed to post this, but it's not like I have a poetic reputation to ruin.


I was painting my
fingernails with peanut
butter this afternoon and
the happy music was playing
on the stereo and then
the sun coming in the
window reminded me that
you love me
so we spent an hour
in the park just wrapped
around each other - flesh
sculptures in prickly grass
and you turned 8 cartwheels
and I got tired
and you understood that
i was too small to put the
baby bird back in its nest
and you kissed frustration
off my nose
then you wouldn't let
me lick the yogurt off the
picnic table and we watched
the dog eat a granola bar because
it was spoiled by the lemon
custard* and again the grass
was pricklysharp
but I was sitting on
your shoulders and you
were wearing shoes


photo credit: Matthew Nauser


* I remember that lemon custard granola bar, but not whether it was that flavor on its own or whether we dipped the granola bar in lemon custard yogurt. Either way, disgusting. A terrible idea.