con-flakes

“Con-Flakes”

 

They sell us breakfast in boxes,

bright mascots with teeth too white

to have ever chewed regret.

 

Each flake a sermon:

fortified with iron,

but brittle as promises

signed in disappearing ink.

 

I pour them anyway,

a cascade of counterfeit crunch,

the milk foaming like applause

for a trick I’ve seen before.

 

Nutrition panel reads like scripture-

thiamine, riboflavin, niacin-

a trinity of syllables

to sanctify the sugar.

 

And still, spoon after spoon,

I swallow the fraud,

grinning like an accomplice,

because even a con,

when toasted just right,

can taste like victory.

 

 

 

 

.

Reviews

[Lorry]

Well just be glad you ain't a Brit because most cereals fall under the "its bad for you sugar tax", just like chocolate bars and even chocolate milk and energy drinks.
Is there anything left to tax, I ask myself as I eat my crunchy nut cornflakes of a morning, as I remember when they were the supermarkets go to discount and you didn't have to apply for a mortgage extension just to have breakfast.
But damn they taste good! 😀

[redd Brick Keshner]

Creativity never seems to amaze, it’s the sheriff of Nottingham malady🕊️🙏🏻

[Chris Shaw]

I try not to read the small print too much Freds. A little knowledge can sometimes be dangerous lol. I just eat the cornflakes and enjoy them. Great title by the way.

Chris

[redd Brick Keshner]

Yup the fine print’s like wallpaper at times! Than you so much dear Chris 🙏🏻🕊️

[Soren]

It all comes down to science and economics don't we just live life anymore. Everything planed marketed, taxed, analyzed, criticized, licensed. regulated where did just enjoying life go. Good write my friend

[redd Brick Keshner]

A veritable prison built and developing around our very existence itself 🕊️🙏🏻

[Soren]

The more the people the more the structure the more the regulation

[redd Brick Keshner]

Babel was never a viable project, even without intervention 🕊️🙏🏻

[Vol]

Redd,
I have nothing to say... you have nailed it, no explanations necessary... A rare and naked bird just there to be appreciated.

[redd Brick Keshner]

Hey Vol! Happy new year (belatedly). Naked bird brought to mind a featherless bird, but then that’s what we’d call ‘dressed’ in the old days 🤩🙏🏻🕊️

[Vol]

Redd,
Ha! So it is! And how odd, because we also stuff the poor things with, you guessed it, "dressing." I love my language! It happens to be my great good fortune that I live in a place where I can go out featherless and feed my chickens. OMG! It was cold this morning!!!
Vol

[FlatDaddy]

Oh yes, Bricky, you sure got this one right! I don't know why now that I never thought of writing a poem to corn flakes! It's so obvious! they're so G R R R E A T! This made me chuckle -- hell, I still am. I loved the line, "the milk foaming like applause" -- and the ending brings it home with a bright SNAP! or should that be crackle?
Bravo!
FD

[redd Brick Keshner]

Crackle and pop are snaps 🕊️🙏🏻

[John the Baptist]

Ah, yes, the breakfast cereal. Indeed, the nutritional info may be bs, but with strawberries, blueberries, tart cherries and milk, I just love my morning flakes.

[redd Brick Keshner]

I throw in fruit, yoghurt and farm honey as well. 🕊️🙏🏻

[Davidgeo]

Isn't modernity spectacular? If "civilized" humans truly understood what the comfort they comfort themselves with really cost, ouch, the amount of cognitive dissonance felt en masse might create a black hole. No more cereal for anyone.

[redd Brick Keshner]

The waste and the pollution we create is catastrophic 🕊️🙏🏻

[Relic]

I bought some the other day after not having them for years. Horrible. I won't buy them again. Your poem should be on the box as a warning label. lol

[redd Brick Keshner]

Like the warning labels on cigarette packets 🕊️🙏🏻