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Forward Planning
I had a bit of
time Sunday so I ate all my breakfasts for the week. I really like breakfast. It’s
probably my favorite meal. I think I would be quite happy eating breakfast at every meal.
Given the range of breakfasts throughout human culture this would be no hardship. I like
most of them (within reason) but maybe not so much Dutch (though I’m sure it’s
very good for you). [Consider Irish breakfasts: wouldn’t they serve very handsomely
as Christmas dinners?]. Sunday I had quite a spread: A scone and a half as per usual
ration (one raisin, half blueberry); granola (raspberry) with warm milk, very nice;
oatmeal in case it was cold on Tuesday; granola with warm milk (snow forecast); fresh roll
& honey (yummy); a scone and a half (one blueberry plus one half raisin thus evening
the score); pancakes; which brought me back to Sunday again, when I do not anticipate
being short of time and so can breakfast in the traditional way in addition to reviewing
& fine-tuning the plan. I felt I made good decisions and as always enjoyed my
breakfast(s). Round Wednesday though I started to get distinctly peckish. Not only
that—depressed. I was obliged to institute very early lunches, composed mainly of
breakfast foods. One interesting side-effect of all this is that I now eat four square
meals a day: one on Sunday and the other three on the day itself. Planning can increase
your appetite it seems, though no doubt efficiency burns calories so it balances out. And
there’s another thing: The square meal. Has anyone ever tried to do something more
ergonomic with that?
Mairead Byrne is an Irish
poet who immigrated to the United States in 1994. Her collection of poetry Nelson
& The Huruburu Bird was published by Wild Honey Press in 2003. Recent
publications include two chapbooks, An Educated Heart and Vivas, and an
ebook, China Dogs. She is the author of two plays, The Golden Hair and Safe
Home, a short book on James Joyce, Joyce - A Clew, two books of interviews
with Irish artists, Eithne Jordan and Micael Mulcahy, and was a journalist for eight years
in Ireland and the United Sates. She earned a PhD in English Literature from Purdue
University in 2001 and lives with her two daughters in Providence, Rhode Island, where she
teaches poetry at Rhode Island School of Design. Her poetry blog 'heaven' is at maireadbyrne.blogspot.com