Classic Poem

(with apologies to Shakespeare)

To eat or not to eat: that is the question:
Would it be best to load the dinner-tray
With tempting viands — pile on pile,
Consume them — and, full soon, go forth
Unto my nightly quarters, with ripe red fruit
Thrust deeply in the bulging pockets
Of an R.N.'s gown?
To eat again — and then — to sleep,
To sleep — ah yes — to dream
Of coming morns, when, with everhastening feet
I fare me forth again upon the noble? quest
Of food — much food — more food,
To be devoured, even at the risk
Of growing corpulency?
To eat or not to eat; Aye! there's the rub;
To suffer all the slings and arrows
Of ravenous desire,
Or, by the eating act, — oppose them?
To know full well
That Staten Island's healthful breeze
Doth add more pounds
To the " Voracious One " ?
And yet, should I refrain from this new found delight
Ah me! " it would break my heart "
" Twould break my heart. "
Perchance by some uncanny Art
Or magic mystery, one could eat and eat and eat
And still possess a sylph-like form
Petite and slender.