5 Comments

If that’s a photo of your sandwich, it looks very good. I’ve had some tasty muffulettas over the years, and it’s a sandwich I’ll usually order at least once even if I know nothing of a place’s provenance.

Here in the Midwest, in the heart of the heart of the country, swine country, just about every bar and roadhouse has their own pork tenderloin and compete on who can pound their pork the thinnest. But it’s a sandwich generally unavailable outside the Midwest. A friend currently working up in Calgary says the only thing he can find there that’s even remotely like a tenderloin is at a Polish deli where they serve a kind of breaded schnitzel.

I like your poem, particularly the discursive part that starts with “what like from Dynasty?”. In True Grit, the narrator Mattie Ross in middle-age says that the magazines of the day think what she writes is too “discursive.” And of course those discursive bits of the novel are some of the best parts of her story about Rooster Cogburn.

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May 29, 2023Liked by Brian Spears

Fuck, yes! ❤️❤️❤️

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May 30, 2023Liked by Brian Spears

I'm from Philly and so for me home is baked beans and franks the ultimate comfort food. And maybe peanut butter and jelly but I can't take all that sugar anymore so it's probably been two decades since I've had one. Cheese steaks of course but you can't get them around here in Maryland though every once in a while I forget that and try something local and miss Philly cheese steaks all the more.

This seems like a pretty real essay though you said it wasn't. That's putting too much pressure on yourself I think. I enjoyed the poem very much.

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May 30, 2023Liked by Brian Spears

Yes, I agree. That's why I seldom eat out in restaurants. I know that I can make things a lot tastier at home and inexpensively too! I make the best Mexican food you can not find that kind of authentic cuisine anywhere. Unless you travel by plane or ship to that country. Good read! I think I will make some Posole now. 😂 I'm in the mood after reading your story.

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What a delicious and moving poem, Brian! And your sandwich looks yummy! I miss poutine (I lived in Montreal most of my life), so a few times a year I make my own as comfort food. I wasn't able to find cheese curds here in NJ though, so I use shredded cheese.

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