A poem for a poor family of five

Grasshopper. From anonymouslefty.blogspot.com

These days we think a lot about food. To compensate, I´m posting a poem about food for a poor family, by the poet Alexis.

Alexis (Ancient Greek: Ἀλέξης, 394 BC – c. 275 BC) was a Greek comic poet of the Middle Comedy, born at Thurii in Magna Graeca and taken early to Athens, where he became a citizen, of the deme Oion (Οἶον), and the tribe Leontides. (Wikipedia.org)

¨Yet, alas! alas! have we

Nourishment for only three!

Two must therefore often make

Scanty meal on barley cake...

And our best and daintiest cheer,

Throughout the bright half of the year,

Is but acorns, beans, chick-peas,

Cabbage, lupins, radishes,

Onions, wild pears nine or ten,

And a grasshopper now and then.¨

From The Fine Art of Food. By Reay Tannahill. P. 25