Potatoes.

POTATOES

   The cutting edge of the potato peeler
   slid under the rim of the potato's skin
   and as I turned the lumpy vegetable
   with my opposite hand the raw smell
   breathed deep inside my lungs.

   It had an earthiness I had to taste
   even though I'd been warned
   Eating raw potato will give you worms
   when I was young. A boy.

   But there was something else.
   Something I was unable to name
   or resist. Something primitive that appealed
   to my primaeval instincts.

   I turned on the tap
   and washed away the stains it made
   on the sink.
   Cut it into small pieces to boil and mash
   and mix with a dob of butter and splash
   of milk.

   Eat with my grilled sausages and peas.

   Later I saw a show on television ...
   Strong hands pulling taro out of wet soil
   in Fiji. And somewhere else, Yams.

   All over the world people are peeling
   and slicing to boil or roast
   this edible rootstock. The starchy flavour
   of our evolvement.