The second day prompt for Poetry Pub’s November Poem a Day Challenge is “Cheese.” G.K. Chesterton in his essay, “Cheese,” writes,

“My forthcoming work in five volumes, ‘The Neglect of Cheese in European Literature,’ is a work of such unprecedented and laborious detail that it is doubtful if I shall live to finish it. Some overflowings from such a fountain of information may therefore be permitted to sprinkle these pages. I cannot yet wholly explain the neglect to which I refer.  Poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese.”

This year’s Poetry Pub November Poem a Day Challenge hopes to put this egregious neglect to rights. The subject of my roundel is stinking bishop which enjoyed a bit of attention due to a reference in the Wallace and Gromit movie, Curse of the Were Rabbit. The notoriety was not entirely welcome though. Listen to this NPR interview with the world’s only stinking bishop cheesemaker, Charles Martel.

Here’s my attempt to rectify my fellow poets’ neglect.

The stinking bishop came today,
Came by truck from a Gloucester town,
We didn’t know he was on his way.
The stinking bishop came today!

A countryside rind, more yellow than brown,
He looks old and sharp, long-past his heyday,
Creamy inside though he's a thick-skinned round, 

And he stinks of strong drink (perry I’d say)
Smells like he's bathed in it or been drowned.
Just so, praise the sender, cry Huzzah! Hooray!
The stinking bishop came today!

© Randall Edwards 2021.