Nutty Bites

Strawberry
popcorn in winter,
nutty bites
urban gardeners
give to themselves.

This thinner tanka was supposed to be a senryu, which read:

 strawberry
popcorn in winter--
nutty bites!

 

But the lines, “urban gardeners / grow for themselves” came to mind, and the first version of the offered thinner tanka popped out of my skull:

 Strawberry
popcorn in winter,
nutty treats
urban gardeners
grow for themselves.

 

Then, I remembered how much the original senryu made me grin (there is something about “nutty bites” sounding like “naughty bites” that my eternally juvenile sense of humor just couldn’t resist). So, I had to slide the “nutty” into the tanka. And, as I was doing it, the image of urban gardeners biting themselves (no idea why) spilled out my fingertips and typed this (as I giggled—all right, cackled—like a delighted maniac):

Strawberry
popcorn in winter,
nutty bites
urban gardeners
give to themselves.

- wondering about the corn? Well, this is the strawberry popcorn I planted last spring and harvested in autumn. Popcorn has never tasted so nuttily good and no kernel has looked so prettily crimson. Yep, I’m totally growing more this year.

- so, I was going to start this post with a definition of “nutty”, since I didn’t want you to think of madness. Then the dictionary suggested: “Nutty (adj.) as in tasting like nuts.” And I just lost it so completely to laughter, that I figured the clarification would cause even more confusion. Still, the nutty bit was too hysterical not to share.

- for Poets and Storyteller United--Friday Writings #61: Such Inspiring Titles, where an extremely good-looking writer asks fellow writers to create poetry or prose inspired by the title of the first book they read, are reading, or will read in 2023. The first book I read this year was Urban Botanics: An Indoor Plant Guide for Modern Gardeners, written by Emma Sibley and gorgeously illustrated by Maaike Koster.