Sugar Sandwiches
my mother said
sugar sandwiches
would give us worms
but it was hard
to resist
the sweet of sugar
the saltiness of butter
on the cloud of bread
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brown sugar
honey
molasses
didn’t have the right
taste bud delight
all were too healthy
it had to be
white granulated sugar
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now I avoid sugar
don’t use it in my tea or coffee
don’t add it to the milk in my cereal
I take my tea black
cream in coffee
with sugar twin
because real sugar isn’t sweet enough
artificial yet satisfying
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I’ve never checked
my mother’s science
sugar sandwichs = worms
but I did learn an important lesson
not to make sugar sandwiches
when she was around
Scare tactics of mothers – ‘Don’t make faces or your face will stay like that forever’ ‘what will the neighbours think.’ All such scare or guilty tactics ever did was make me more secretive not more ethical or aware of healthier choices. I can recall being admonished for not letting my younger brother & sisters win at boardgames or cards. I never understood how undermining my abilities would improve theirs or even improve my image in their eyes.
Childhood is full of conflicting messages – being told by a cigarette smoking parent that smoking isn’t good for you, that telling lies is bad while putting gifts from Santa under the tree, bullying is bad while encouraging you bully back – the list is endless. When you question being told to be obedient, not to talk back. Surviving childhood is a bit of a miracle. Surviving teenage hood is even a bigger accomplishment.
I was, as I recall, a fairly obedient kid more out of ‘fear’ than anything else. I didn’t question the ‘lies’ my parents told me, many of which reflected the lies our culture told them about masculinity, about personal growth, about financial success being the only measure of one’s worth, about well .. that list goes on & on.
Today I know the science behind sugar & the harms it does to the liver but a quick look on google & there endless recipes for bread, butter & sugar sandwiches. A dash of cinnamon! I didn’t find one that connects sugar with intestinal worms. I’m not going to try one now though to refresh that childhood memory. I’ll stick to creme boule for a sugar rush. Hmm – creme boule sandwich, anyone?
What ‘lies’ did you grow up with?
TOpoet 