A skeuomorphic diet for … (Poetry Monthly)

A skeuomorphic diet for a trip to Mars

Food building blocks extracted
by a process long, protracted –
all the fuel chemicals,
vitamins and minerals:
and so was made nutritious goo
in tubes to suck and squeeze it through
and ooze the dollops to your mouth
meal by meal and month by month.

But, we need to chew
and have something to do –
prepare it and cook,
make our daily food
have a pleasing look
and it must taste good,
different each meal
with an interesting feel:
no appeal, no deal.

Put in some fibre
some bite and some crunch
make it like chicken
or noodles for lunch,
fruit, even veg
and bread we can toast
pots we can boil
or mash, fry or roast.

And this was done
with some success;
but, why you might say
could things not just stay
as they were, no contraptions
for complex extractions?
Well, they need to have less
bits left to compress
in the rubbish compartments;    ,
and they couldn’t equip    
in the space of the ship
storage facilities
and preserve the commodities
for that natural diet
that would keep grumblers quiet.

So, there you have it,
a skeuomorphic diet,
looks like the past,
looks like the real,
it can last and last,
and has some appeal

and a bit of good feel,
so a necessary deal
if fixed your intention
of this space-ship detention!

https://soundcloud.com/rhiannon-weber/marsdiet

[an old poem done when the IP was on 'skeuomorph' – a derivative object that retains ornamental design cues from structures that were necessary in the original.]