Foie Gras at the Colosseum

At the Harker Valley Ranch located in Cloverdale, NY
Dedicated feeders learn their craft.
They know the controversy,
But they need the money
And have obligations to their families.
So they erase the possibility of pain
And continue their artistry.

Theirs is a skilled craft.
They snake long plastic tubes
Down birds' beaks and finger the "crops"
Which are kept constantly full.
This is the same for 21 days
Until the harvest.

Then,
And only then,
  The ordinary livers taste like butter
       And become culinary treats.

Meanwhile, the discerning foodies
Exchange recipes

And eat.

**************

DAMNATIO AD BESTIAS:

Four separate tiers make up the Roman colosseum.
Each tier balances, one upon the next.
From the outside, the amphitheater is a neat stack of
          American-eagle silver-dollars
One set upon the next like a Bruegel-themed wedding cake.

At the Colosseum's base,

The cardinal points

Mark the circled square:

The symbols of day dividing night

Unspool in the evermore of clockwork design.

Spectators in the colosseum
Gaze down into the wide
Yawning mouth.
The stage is shaped like Vesica Piscis.

The Colosseum served as a microcosm 

Of another life where 55,000 stories 

Repeated through the generations,

Repeating in breadths.

The Fibonacci Sequence resonates even now.

Just as the clock read 11:15,

Luke saw a black line of figures marching 

In columns along the beach.

Dressed in black robes, they sang like angels

Falling in step, chanting, "I am the will!"

They chanted, "My will alone!"

And tapped their feet.

The pattern resembled 

A Fibonacci sequence.

______________________________________________
______________________*_____________________

From the highest points,

The floor below looks like a human eye

But from its sandy center,

To stand upon it,

It is much more like a mouth

Chewing up and spitting out what

What falls onto it.

Here, the lesser gods feast.
All the world's a stage, wrote Shakespeare in his play.

On such a stage, a man lives 7 times,

Led through a castellated abbey

To thunderous applause.

The spectators stare down into the circle

Where gladiators fight.

Their steel weapons

Cut into the ceaseless roar

Of thunderous applause

This is the upside down mountain

Where coiling ribbons spiral smoke

Hold up distorted walls in their opium den.

Study their shadows, and you will see

That the pipe has passed.

Still, each human life plays like a single note

Gathered together in a grand symphony.

The connoisseurs who describe the sound

As a rich and tender buttery silk.

________________________________________________

When the fight broke out, 

The students grabbed their cell phones

And filmed the scene.

A closed, hard fist struck another's face

As the crowd circled like they always do:

Kill the beast! Cut her throat!

They cheered and screamed

And many profited from the clip itself

In more ways than one.

Man, you are

Confined

In your cardinal direction

And 

Conflicts,

While

The feeders

Thrust plastic hoses

Down beaks.

Self, nature, man, and machine________________________________________________

Anything can happen
In a place like this:
Even plastic tubes with corn boiled in fat

Can take the place of a starving cat

Consuming Christians from the circle.

All this, with a smile and a tip of the hat,

 the cheering crowd

Gladly pays to wait to see what

Happens

Next.

That's what 
Michael Ruhlman, food critic, says.

**************

In the Colosseum, the first tier circles the Podium.

This is the space reserved for the Emperor, his senators, and his priests.

This is when, on the island, 

Even Prospero

Was con-

Cerned

When they smashed his particles

To see what would happen next. 

Directly above, the second tier

Holds its ring of spectators slightly distanced.

14 rows of marble seats

make up the noble class.

Most are resigned to the secondary glow

Quite content as next-world gods,

And this is their entertainment.

The song is slanted, somehow familiar, and heard in a chamber.

Where smoke-rings reach the children of Hamelin.

On the third tier, two above the first,

The plebeians take their seats

Among themselves.

They cannot divide into separate halves

Because they are entirely the same.

They are the piper's dream,

Because they won't part with 

The last of their silver coins.

If the Colosseum were a bowl,

Then the very top

Would be the rounded cusp

Of the forgotten ones.

The least of these, His brethren, 

Let them have it.

Let them eat foie gras.

******************************

Proponents of foie gras
Are aware of the controversy, of course.

They treat the issue as a matter of freedom,

much like smoking cigarettes

Or fucking bareback with strangers.

The song is slanted, somehow familiar, and heard in the den
Where smoke-rings reach out to the children of Hamelin.

This was the piper's pipe, it seems.   

And for this song, the parents will pay 

Even the last of their silver coins

Leaving only the children as collateral.
Their shine will flash backward.

If the first memory is indeed the last 

And the last memory becomes the first,

There is a point to this after all.

Let them go into debt!  

They know it's wrong,

But they like the thrill....

These are the

Self-proclaimed foodies

Who argue that taste is a matter of taste

And animals can't actually feel true pain.

If they could, they would developed the urgency of language

And more ways to express distress.

A backward soldier

Hides in the frame of a science-fiction reel. 

Ever since I saw you, I knew you were real.

You'll get through

Because that's the true will.  

I will meet you there on the beach.

Others will suggest a more complex approach to the elliptical dish.

"Peach melba":

Serve the foie gras on melba toast.

Top with a peach chutney

And a sprinkle of coarse salt.

Pair with something like prunes,

See The Zuni Cafe's recipe for prunes

In red wine vinegar.

Include a small slice of toast

On top.

When sliced and seared,

It's served like salami.

"Pained flesh tastes fresh." 

they say

As they watch from their place

In the colosseum.

*************