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Circus & Carnival Poetry Prompt: Deep Fried and On a Stick

By Heather Eure 6 Comments

circus_and_carnival
There’s only one place to go when you’re craving a snack that’s deep fried and served on a stick. Carnival food is a guilty pleasure. It’s the ultimate junk food. So, when did this culinary debauchery begin? We have the St. Louis Exposition (World’s Fair) of 1904 to thank for introducing us to much of the carnival foods we enjoy today, such as: waffle cones, cotton candy, hot dogs, and hamburgers to name a few. We also owe a debt of gratitude to the 1919 State Fair of Texas for sno cones and again in 1942 for corn dogs. Sometime during the 1950’s, the Kutztown Folk Festival gave us funnel cakes.

Our torrid love affair with carnival food has only grown over the years. Explore any fair or carnival and you’ll see brightly lit signs advertising bizarre snacks that seem like they were originally eaten as a dare. This is what carnival cuisine is all about— trying a bold new food-type-thing or chowing down on old favorites. It’s a one of a kind indulgence and this is America, so enjoy.

Work your way down the thoroughfare. Eat till you just. can’t. anymore. If you’re feeling bold, ride the Tilt-a-Whirl, too. There will be plenty of time for regret later.

Try It

Write a poem about your favorite carnival food. Describe it in detail, whether it’s messy, turns your tongue blue, or even if it’s almost too embarrassing to admit it’s your favorite. Think of it as an ode to weird food, your steely nerve, and cast-iron stomach.

Featured Poem

Thanks to everyone who participated in last week’s poetry prompt. Jen took us skyward with her poem, On Top of the World:

On Top of the World

For just a few seconds
we’ll hang out here
in a creaky basket atop the Ferris wheel
while a few more people climb in,

above the noise and the color and the overload
the endless round and round calliope carousel
the echoing shrieks from the Gravitron and Zipper
the tumbling laughing conversations melting, melding
into a fog of noise.

All that exists now
is this creaky old basket
(how many people have sat here?)
a pool of sound and light below,
a hazy, cloudy night above,
just enough summer breeze to breathe
before we swing forward.

 —by Jen Rose Yokel

Photo by Kevin Dooley, Creative Commons via Flickr.

Browse more Circus & Carnival poems
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Heather Eure
Heather Eure
Heather Eure has served as the Poetry Editor for the late Burnside Collective and Special Projects Editor for us at Tweetspeak Poetry. Her poems have appeared at Every Day Poems. Her wit has appeared just about everywhere she's ever showed up, and if you're lucky you were there to hear it.
Heather Eure
Latest posts by Heather Eure (see all)
  • Poetry Prompt: Misunderstood Lion - March 19, 2018
  • Animate: Lions & Lambs Poetry Prompt - March 12, 2018
  • Poetry Prompt: Behind the Velvet Rope - February 26, 2018

Filed Under: Blog, Circus & Carnival, Food Poems, poetry prompt, poetry teaching resources, Themed Writing Projects, writer's group resources, writing prompts

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Comments

  1. Rick Maxson says

    August 11, 2015 at 6:15 pm

    The Love Song of Alfred’s Fried Quickdogs

    Se ho creduto che ho detto
    una persona non dovrebbe tornare a questo
    corridoio, La fiamma padella non necessita più di me.
    Ma perché burro fritto colpisce profondamente, non posso
    resistere al ritorno qui, è vero, senza timore di coronarie proclamo

    Let us go then, you and I,
    Where the Ferris wheel circles into the sky,
    Like a funnel cake upright in my fingers;
    Let us go where vendors deep-fry treats,
    Of butter and fat meats
    And restless crowds spend hours as if some spells
    Were cast on them in the House of Haunts,
    A curse that followed them insisting
    on the penitents of Lent
    And the silliness of nutritional type question,
    Oh do not ask, “Will it make me sick?”
    It’s like a corndog fried in Bisquick..

    At the restrooms people come and go,
    Holding their stomachs and moaning ohhhhh.

    Reply
    • Heather Eure says

      August 12, 2015 at 2:17 am

      “Oh do not ask, ‘Will it make me sick?'”

      My mind’s response to the Quckdog:
      And indeed there will be time
      To wonder, “Do I dare?” and, “Do I dare?”

      How funny! Thanks for the chuckle, Rick.

      Reply
  2. Ian Graham says

    August 15, 2015 at 7:48 am

    To show candy floss
    Just who’s the boss
    I left it uneaten
    A move that won’t sweeten
    The mood of a dandy
    Great cotton candy
    But will, I advise,
    Bring it down to size.

    Reply
  3. Candace Kubinec says

    August 16, 2015 at 10:58 pm

    Candied Apple

    The rides are still and
    Lights in the park are dimming
    She leaves with the best
    Prize – candied apple, heaven
    On a stick
    The crunch of the first bite
    Teeth punching through the
    Sticky, red sugar crust
    Juice of a tart Autumn apple
    Dripping slowly down her chin
    Landing on her yellow shirt –
    Happy, swooning in the back seat

    Reply
  4. Katie says

    April 17, 2018 at 11:07 pm

    Squiggles of dough
    Dusted with snow
    So chewy and sweet
    my favorite treat
    among sugary temptations
    across all our great nation.

    Holding the paper plate in my hand
    your warmth feels so marvelously grand
    How you came to be carnival food
    Don’t know – who cares – you sure help my mood.
    Even your fragrance makes me drool
    For fried cake I am a fool.

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Circus & Carnival Prompt: Circus Animals - says:
    August 17, 2015 at 8:00 am

    […] last week’s poetry prompt, Rick shared a witty poem inspired by The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T.S. […]

    Reply

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