2026 Poetry Challenge - Current Events - Generational - Humor - Of Place - Poems - Unserious

M.S.G.

MSG used to mean:
"monosodium glutamate"
and it carried with it
a stigma.

And now it’s code for
TAYLOR!!!!
And it's just as polarizing.

Is she?
She couldn’t!
But is she?
It’s a ruse!
What if she does?
Tacky!
Security!
Savvy!

But there’s so many
Very Very Many
stars orbiting
the Burroughs
surely that means
s o m e t h i n g.

Meanwhile, I’m stuck
in bumper to bumper
somewhere
between Stamford
and Bridgeport.

And the breathy
side-eye-slash-yearning
social media reports,
on the street POVs,
and Op Eds
on all things MSG
flow onto my screen
obliterating everything
like autumn leaves
on a windy October morn.

Madison
Square
Garden party?

Baby we can
shake
shake
shake it up.

Whether Umami
Or celebrity tsunami
However it shakes out
MSG packs a punch.


Poet, writer, photographer and slightly distracted day-dreamer who muses on (gestures at everything) from the petty to the profound. On a semi-serious, fully earnest search for meaning in the mayhem. Perimenopausal, melanin-deprived, irony-enhanced recovering perfectionist Type A+ millennial woman. She balances the ever-continuing quest to Know Better/Do Better, with the distinct ego-death of parenting a smart, full-throated child who was raised to know the power of her voice. Mothering a teen means catching a side-eye in almost every interaction. Diana navigates the minutiae of everyday life through seeking the magical in the mundane. Follow along and laugh with her as the world flames out!

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