Tag Archives: food

Donna

by Chris Buchanan
Poetry, 2026


Our Donna
stood tall as a spire of sweaty meat,
stuck in a kitchen on a city centre square
staked on a pole, slowly spinning,
streaks of her skin sliding off under saline,
but stuck still and taken for granted.

She vanished piece by piece, every night shedding satisfaction
for salivating strangers seeking something more,
sharing of her salt in silence.

She perished – not so fast that folks saw and sobbed –
– not even slow so that we were sick of the sight and the stink –
but steady,
at the speed where the guy who slid her slick off the spit
and hauled up another one,
singing to himself and licking his lips,
didn’t even notice her slip away.

Poseidon on an Oban Bench

by Chris Buchanan
Poetry, 2015

She scraped the chippie box off her blue jeans,
squeaked the plastic fork from the polystyrene,
dotted the sea air with vinegar and steam
and parted the batter, slid it off like frogskin.

The antiseptic smell of exposed, white, hot fish
was everywhere along the pier. Haircuts began to itch
as the scents lifted. My neck went greasy and stiff
and she smiled cleanly, nodded past my face:

a seagull trod air behind my shoulder, impatient
with a slate-hard, orange, downturned bill waiting
for its moment. I was close to its eye.
I almost kissed the bird in fight or flight but then
with a sharp splash and a salt mist the girl was gone.