Salt & Sugar

Happy Friday! It's that time again...

This week's post is based on an idea I received last year in November (I always seem to pick the ones with corresponding month timelines... not sure why). It was November 27th and I must have been dreaming about late Thanksgiving dinner because it may be my only short story/poem idea about a food item. The poem was originally entitled: "Different But Equal" but now the title is different but equal... haha. Enjoy:

"Salt & Sugar"

Bronze plates hung in parallel,

From rusty chains too old to tell,

And measured pure, in simple form,

A perfect scale thus to perform.

There came to be, a matter soft,

Which took its place, its usage oft,

White-to-grain and piled free,

T’was nothing more than salt, you see.

Then piled on the other side,

A whitened mound, to match its stride.

Appearing almost uniform,

T’was sugar in its purest form.

To natural eye, they looked the same,

And weighed out equal on the frame.

But though compared perplexedly,

Neither could each other be.

~•~

Thus we breath and eat in hue,

And put on socks in morning cue,

But though we overlap, in claim,

We do not ever “taste” the same.

-Cale Kenneth Montoya (11-17-23)

I had a lot of fun with this one... then again... so do I with all of them... As you might have been able to tell, this poem is centered on the idea that we all are very similar when it comes down to basic human functions and interactions but yet we all have something unique that we bring to the table, or in this case, "scale."

I used the concept of a scale and had the initial idea to call the poem "Different But Equal" because it portrays that though we may be similar to others, but "taste different" we are yet all equal. There is a wonderful scripture that says: "...for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart." (1 Samuel 16:7)

No matter who you are, no matter what you "taste like," you will always serve a purpose and that purpose will always be equal to everyone else. God looks on your heart, not your appearance. Never forget that.

-Cale Montoya