Letters to Guns

Unsung Cheese

56 Unsung Cheese after Donald Hall In the central library the epic poems of cheese starve for themselves while unnamed cheeses lose their histories entirely; Feta gone to pieces like the Parthenon; Mozzarella, foreign gentleman graciously contained until spoken to. O cheeses of legend, cheeses of nazareth, cheeses that pray openly in public because everywhere is God. O cheeses of the forests and streams, cheeses of industry, cheeses that turn with the gears of commerce, making and breaking. American cheese, youngest of contenders, selling out until the world is yours; Monterey Jack, notorious waterfront thug; Gouda, temptress and geometrix, modeling nude for businessmen and mathematicians. O cheeses of poverty, cheeses of social security, cheeses crippled and couch-ridden before the television, losing the remote control between thyroidal cushions. nacho cheese, addicted to everything, waiting for the telephone to ring. Cheese Wiz, fluorescent pimp, hustler, and teenage prostitute, buying beer with a fake Id; Provolone, fixing a horse race for La Cosa nostra; Asiago, taking a fall in the first round; and Fontina, Prince of denmark, your days are numbered. O forgotten cheeses of war, cheeses that cram the orphanage, vandalizing churches, looting summer homes, always disappearing in the night, your pockets heavy. O cheeses of the single-parenthousehold, cheeses suspicious of authority. 57 Gloucester, whispering the fall of the monarchy; Havarti fickle romantic, ruining the wedding with your indifference; Parmigiano, playful but easily alarmed; and Romano, leaving your lovers early to call mother long distance. O stories of cheeses, I memorize you for my unborn children. O cinema of cheeses, revived at midnight in university towns, O cheeses that languish in books like the lyrics of lost empires, this mercy, this forgiveness, these hands describing love. ...