INSIDES AND OUTS OF POPCORN – CYNTHIA GALLAHER

behold the unpopped harvests

from not-quite-popular,

quasi-crafty, semi-shabby

Midwestern places: Ridgway, Illinois,

Valparaiso, Indiana,

Marion, Ohio, Hamburg, Iowa.

zea mays everta! popcorn!

claiming ancestral home

in old New Mexican bat caves,

serving as elder shaman to corn on the cob,

in today’s plain-jane mason jars

quiet, contented yellow kernels

hold super volcanoes, Popocatepetls,

Old Faithful geysers within,

tough layers trapping aggressive steam,

popcorn builds its unbearable pressure

refuses to be constrained,

to split, explode,

burst forth, turn inside out,

pop, pop, pop

into blinding white

snowflakes and mushrooms

and fluffy flowers, fifty times

their original size,

full and freely non-GMO

among slave-trade maize GMO captives

of high fructose corn syrup,

animal feed, processed food,

with popcorn

remaining whole grain victor,

earthy, savory ancient

of the 21st century.