Sweet and Spicy Noodles Served Between Paychecks

by Quincy Scott Jones
 

a can of oranges cost a dollar seven
while putting twenty on pump four
 
twenty will get you to and from the office
four times this week if you don’t
 
get caught in traffic if you don’t
go back for that book if you don’t
 
mind staying in on Friday night eating
a can of oranges for a dollar seven
 
and not a penny more
this is not hunger
 
hunger is the LA Riots hunger is
the Edmund Pettus Bridge hunger is
 
the smidge of guilt Nat Turner might have felt
though the feeling flew faster than the scythe’s slipstream
 
as it freed the blood from master’s throat
don’t drive around the block more
 
than once before parking down the street
gas may be cheap right now but walking’s always free
 
you may need to move some papers to be graded
in order to put the groceries down
 
you may need to run the water before
it’s clear enough for the pot
 
bring to boil and add the emergency
pasta you keep like that of your mother
 
kept in a glass jar on the top shelf
a decoration signaling wealth because wealth
 
is only as good as your next meal
peel the top of the can and pour both
 
oranges and juice into the pan greased with
oil and butter and hot sauce which is just
 
salt and vinegar and cayenne and bruises
and Sundays and night terrors and red lines and blood
 
and it will burn from your gums to your gut
while you eat and while you sleep the same burning
 
will keep you warm
worm through the pantry to add whatever you find
 
“best by” comes from lobbyist
with pockets stronger than their stomachs
 
“sell by” is an excuse for capitalists
that couldn’t auction old slaves
 
shave the stale from the crust of the bread
and break off any mold
 
serve noodles and sauce on an old plate
to garnish with the tastes of dinners past
 
this is what it is to be an artist to be
an academic to be one of the talented elite
 
if bland sweeten with the words
you’ll use to romanticize this story
 
to others and if you need salt focus on the word
“others” and allow yourself to cry

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Quincy Scott Jones is the author of the The T-Bone Series, published by Whirlwind Press in 2009. His work has appeared in African American Review, The North American Review, Love Jawns: A Mixtape, and The Feminist Wire as well as anthologies Resisting Arrest: Poems to Stretch the Sky, COVID Chronicles: A Comics Anthology, and Black Lives Have Always Mattered: A Collection of Essays, Poems, and Personal Narratives. With Nina Sharma, he co-curates Black Shop, a column that thinks about allyship between BIPOC artists. His graphic narrative, Black Nerd, is in the works.