Somewhere around A.D. 995
Italian city of Naples
the first one showed up
quickly becoming a favorite stop
especially after a long week
pressing olives
maintaining gladiator gear
From this single shop a dietary
staple came to life
simple, ancient concoctions
combinations of all sorts
bringing social
disagreement, disaffection
fourteen-hundred years before
pineapple showed up
becoming integral to
local culture, then spreading
The simple pizza
Neapolitans didn’t argue
crust height, depth
cuts made as squares or
triangles
though they each knew their
favorite spots, toppings
knew the dish was theirs
theirs alone
wanted the world to know
once people began
making it at home
sans checkered togas
As the famed troubadour
Billus Joelius wrote
‘Quando vis Faciam in
occursum adventus tui
In nostro Italico Restaurant’
And there – that is something
you learned today
– Mark L. Lucker
© 2023
http://lrd.to/sxh9jntSbd
Love this poem…
Great line – making it at home sans checkered togas
Glad you liked this one. Not so sure in retrospect how well it would play. It’ll be fun to play with, though. Glad I brought you a small chuckle.
This poem proves once again that pizza leads the way topically.
Proof, eh? I’ll take it! Thank you, David.
Yes, that is something I learned today. Can you imagine the Neapolitans ever guessing that we would argue about whether pineapple should be on a pizza? These pizza poems have made me hungry.