Wishes and dishes

Southerners are really good at food. It is a fact of life. Some of us can really cook it. Some of us can really eat it.

The real gems can do both.

They usually have restaurants with names like “Big Daddy’s BBQ.”

Food is a way of life here, and it’s important.

I’m not sure if I have the words to tell you just how important food is to Southern people so I’ll just present a fact from my life as evidence.

Mama once made me a meatloaf cake with mashed-potato icing for my birthday. I kid you not.

I had a hard time with what to write for today’s WordPress Discover prompt, which is dish.

I think I’ll try to write a poem, because I’m running out of time.

Maybe I can make it rhyme.

It’s true, we Southerners eat hearty.

We turn food into a party.

Sometimes, instead of birthday wishes,

We ask for our favorite dishes.

We like collard greens and cornbread,

And a big ol’ biscuit called a cathead.

We don’t like to go to meetings,

Unless we know there will be eating.

When we’re going through hard times,

We head for the buffet lines.

Lost your favorite dog or cat?

There’s a casserole for that.

Down here, and this is not a joke,

We pour peanuts in our Coke.

Our pie fillings fall from trees.

Our gas stations are meat-and-threes.

Ask us about our favorite haunts.

A lot of them will be restaurants.

We won’t make you cry or beg.

We’ll bless your heart with a chicken leg.

The best food you put in your mouth,

May be the food made in the South.

So next time you make a wish,

I suggest a Southern dish.