it could protect
you from
wind
rain
snow
& w/ a visor sun.

it could pad
your head
during a crash
or fall.

if you're married
it would detour
women.

it would be a
conversation piece
which may open doors
to Jobs / Friends / Lovers.

it could provide
food if times
got real hard.

People will remember
the meat helmet
& whatever the meat
helmet stood for.

So Go forth & be proud
of that bloody hunk
of cow flesh upon your head.
The Meat Helmet.

By Christi Meaty

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Editor's Note

In the translation to electronic format, I attempted to leave the poem as close to its written counterpart as possible, so that the artist's poetic sound and vision would not be lost. However, a few things have changed.

One: The ampersand ('&') has been used in a number of places instead of that other squiggly mark which also represents "and." (Because I couldn't figure out how to put that other squiggly mark in an e-mail.)

Two: It is often unclear in the written text where the artist is using lower case letters, capital letters, and 'small-caps' and I have at times had to improvise.

Third: On first pass, due to a smudge in the manuscript, it was difficult for me to tell in the third stanza whether the artist used the word 'deter' or 'detour.' After closer examination, however, this confusion turned out to be wishful thinking on my part, as it's definitely 'detour' even though 'detour' doesn't really make any grammatical sense in this context. But I didn't want to second guess such a brilliant artist as I am just a lowly scribe and after some many minutes of soul searching I decided to leave it as the original 'detour'. But I'm pretty sure she meant 'deter.'

Fourth: In the original hand-written poem the final two stanzas are actually switched, with a couple of arrows and lines signifying that they are supposed to be read in the order seen here. While that confusion is perhaps part of what made the handwritten poem so beautiful, I think that the way it appears now most closely matches the artist's original intentions and I can only hope she would be pleased with this version.