Of Health Food and Butterfly Wings (Illustration)

Our Bastet’s Pixelventures Sunday Challenge for this week is to illustrate Jen Rosenberry’s delightful and thought provoking story and haiku mix, “Of Health Food and Butterfly Wings.”

I am really enjoying this new form of challenge!  (The butterfly picture and the red part of the NO symbols I used are courtesy of Wikimedia.)

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Of Health Food and Butterfly Wings

by Jen Rosenberry from Blog it or Lose it!

 Who doesn’t want to provide their five-year-old with healthy snacks?  Not this parent!  When my child took an interest in the pre-packaged apple slices I saw a quick and easy way to get my kiddo out of the cracker aisle.  How healthy!  How fast!  How neat! I grabbed those apple slices and “got out of Dodge” – fast!

When we got home, I opened a bag of those luscious-looking apple slices for my son.  He grabbed them eagerly.  He took a few bites – then made a mad dash for the kitchen and gagged into the sink.

“They’re awful, Mom!”

the best-laid plans /
o’ moms and five-year-olds – /
should have bought crackers //

The child has a hair-trigger gag reflex.  I knew better than to try again.  If he wouldn’t eat them then I’d have to do it.  They weren’t awful – but they were sour.  I wasn’t pleased, but I was resigned that the apples would not go to waste.

expecting sweetness /
finding lemon instead – /
face in a pucker //

The apples were more than bitter, though.  Had I managed to stuff a piece of the plastic packaging in my mouth along with an apple slice?  There was something non-apple on my tongue.

As they say in Star Wars, “I [had] a bad feeling about this.”  Like my son, I walked to the sink.  I grabbed a paper towel – and spit.

one naked wing /
from a luckless butterfly – /
stunned speechless //

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22 thoughts on “Of Health Food and Butterfly Wings (Illustration)”

    1. Thanks. It was fun to do.

      I couldn’t figure out how to get the words under the red slash that goes across the circle, but I think that doing it the normal way would have made the words harder to read. It makes the point the way it is!

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      1. I don’t know how to do it either, but I suspect that it is bettr like this, you’d have lost some vital letters doint it the other way.

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      2. This is wonderful! It works perfectly! 🙂
        And yes — we get the point — no more pre-packaged apples. But when you’re dealing with little kids …. ah, darned if you do, darned if you don’t!

        Love this illustration. 🙂

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      3. I would also think that it was a reasonable thing to buy for a quick snack for a kid or for myself. But your story, while funny, was a reminder for me too!

        I also loved how the illustration turned out…. and it was fun to figure out how to put words on the NO symbol.

        Thanks for submitting your story and poem for Bastet’s challenge!

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      1. That or anything with Aspertane.. It’s carcinogenic and it sterilizes people… Yuck

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      5. How did you find my corner of wordpress? Few come my way… There is no flash, just words.

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    1. I hadn’t thought of that implication of NO prepackaging! I don’t buy prepackaged cookies anyway though. The big ones from the bakeries are my downfall.

      What a difference it would make in the world (litter, garbage, energy, etc.) if we didn’t have prepackaging in general…. or at least reduced it significantly.

      That picture gallery may have uses I haven’t thought of! Thanks……

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  4. Sometimes I get so cranky with the amount of plastic our food is wrapped in. such a way and so unnecessary. There is no substitute for the real thing. All those chemicals that are needed to keep foods in a palatable ( or perhaps, semi-palatable) state for many months on the supermarket shelf are bound to alter the taste dramatically. Great work highlighting an important issue.

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    1. I also am so aware of all the plastic that is used for packaging. Sometimes a small item is packaged in a big container, probably to make it harder to steal, but it uses so much more plastic than what is needed. I really respect the people that choose to live a plastic free life. I’m not there yet, but I try to minimize it.

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