The Tattie Test, Poetry by David Anderson

Genre: Funny, Family

The Tattie Test
by David Anderson

I peeled intently, with a small, sharp knife
Cutting out luminous poison,
thanks to another famous old wife.
It’s the green birth of a Sowetto grenade
or that stuff from which
amazonian darts can be made

To remove that peel in an unbroken whole,
achieve an illusive ‘all-in-oner’,
was essentially, my first and foremost goal.
A triumph of which to be hugely proud,
not some everyday occurrence, in fact
at that age, I would’ve shouted it loud.

Digging out those darkened mouldy spots,
was to break in to a world hitherto
unknown, to which end I knew not,
where would it lead? A trivial hole,
A day-surgery operation,
like the removal of a mole.

Maybe a massive excavation would unfold,
creating a tunnel to the other side
of that unexposed tater world.
Or, to realise the potato had died
Destined never…