Cannibal Gourmet

In the poem "Cannibal Gourmet", poet Aster Quinn utilizes the extended metaphor of cannibalism to convey their experiences with CPTSD, childhood abuse, enmeshment, and CSA. By intentionally dehumanizing themselves as a sheep, Quinn defies gender and expectation by transforming the virginal and oft-victimised symbol of the (presumable female) lamb into a masculine ram, reclaiming their victimhood as tools for defense.

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Just because you made me,

Doesn’t mean you can eat me.

Certainly, you groomed prepared me

Made me into

A dish to sweet and succulent

Mild and

C o m p l i a n t

Starved me into a leaner cut

Beat me to tenderness

with the pummel of your words

Baked me under the pie weights of your expectations

The outsides charred to a sufficient crisp

But the innards still all sinewy and raw

I was the perfect feast for you

Trussed up in twine

And I suppose that if I put that much effort into a dish

(Thirty years’ worth of effort)

I’d be upset to see it abscond from my table

Grow it’s their own legs and run

A lamb alive on the serving dish

The aromatic offal filled with spiced orange peel

And bittersweet cranberries

Trailing out of me with glistening wet ribbons

of undercooked gore

Horns growing and curling as I run

Becoming dark and pointed and dangerous

A ram fleeing into the arms of a sheepdog

That you choose to call a wolf

I see how you’d be disappointed

F u r i o u s

That the cannibal gourmet you labored over

Slaked every drip of your gluttony into preparing

And making the perfect victim for your knife

Is no longer yours

No longer anyone’s

To feast upon

Just because you made me what I am

Does

Not

Mean

You

Can

Eat

Me