Food fight in Ivrea, Italy
— Photo by Giò - Borghetto Battle of Oranges - Battaglia delle Arance 2007 - Ivrea
“Dessert Is Counted Sweetest’’ (after Emily Dickinson poem. See below.)
(Appeared in the May/June 2022 Emily Dickinson International Society Bulletin)
Dessert is counted sweetest
By those who need to diet.
When doctors won't stop nagging,
I fantasize a riot.
Not one of all the cakes and pies
I might forgo today
Could fail to bring me pleasure --
Though later, much dismay.
— Felicia Nimue Ackerman is a Providence-based poet and Brown University philosophy professor.
The Dickinson poem:
Success is counted sweetest
By those who ne'er succeed.
To comprehend a nectar
Requires sorest need.
Not one of all the purple Host
Who took the Flag today
Can tell the definition
So clear of victory
As he defeated – dying –
On whose forbidden ear
The distant strains of triumph
Burst agonized and clear!
