Found poetry – Joy of Cooking, Irma S. Rombauer and Marion Rombauer Becker

How to bake a saint

The eel is a fish that believes in long journeys. 
Slip a noose around the eel
and kill it with a sharp blow to the head.

If possible, trap ‘possum and feed it
on milk and cereal for ten days
before killing.

Stuff and roast squirrels as for pigeons. 
Gray squirrels are preferred to red,
which are quite gamy in flavour.

The pig is brought to table 
on plenty of greenery, 
with an apple in the mouth. 

He resembles a saint 
in that he is more honoured after death 
than during his lifetime. 

Skewer legs into position. 
Sew up the pig. Hold over open flame
until rough skin blisters.

© Kerri Power