A grocery chain in Iceland – Bónus Supermarkets – began selling a slim volume of poetry at its counters on eternal “special offer” several decades ago. It became the best-selling volume of poetry in the history of Iceland, and I can see why…
Bónus Poetry, by Andre Snaer Magnason, is sharp, funny, smart, and sometimes shocking.
Beginning in “Paradiso” (the fruit and vegetable section), we proceed through “Inferno” (meat and frozen goods) before reaching “Purgatorio” (cleaning products). This is all a riff on Dante’s Divine Comedy, of course.
Since publication of Bónus Poetry, Magnason has gone on to become one of Icleand’s leading literary lights. He is the only person to have won the Icelandic Literary Award in all three categories: fiction, nonfiction, and children’s.
Here are a few of my favorites…
You Are What You Eat I
My grandfather was 70% water
he was 70% the stream
that trickled past his farm
he was 30%
the sheep that grazed on his mountain
he was the fish swimming in his lake
he was the cow eating in his field
he was the stream, he was the grass,
the mountain and the lake
I am not 70% water
perhaps 15% mineral water
the rest is beer and Coca-Cola
I am Italian pasta, Swiss cheese,
Danish pork and Chinese rice
American ketchup
runs through my veins
you are what you eat
I am a miniature of the world
no
I am a miniature of Bónus.
***
Snow White
Snow White can’t buy six-packs
the dwarves are seven
seven chicken legs, seven cans of coke,
seven dirty dishes, seven dirty sheets,
seven filthy boxers, seven days a week
as usual she was going to toss
seven bottles of beer in her basket
but she changed her mind
bought herself a bottle of red wine
and seven poisoned apples.
***
Material Girl
in five years, I will be gone
all that you have felt, stroked, kissed,
held and embraced
will be gone
replaced — with new cells,
new molecules,
new material
you have never touched
or kissed
I am shopping for new bones,
new blood, new hair
new skin
it will come home in
yellow plastic bags
and slowly
become the new me
my face might look older
but it will be new
everything replaced
except the memory of
you.
***
Couple III
Fabric softener, she said, and scented can-
dles. And the foot cream, he said. I forgot
to pick up something sweet to go with the
coffee, she said. That’s fine, I have some-
thing sweet to go with the coffee, he said
and stroked her old hands.
