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# E.T.
- URL: https://dianaludwick.com/e-t/
- Published: 2026-08-27T14:02:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-08-27T14:02:00.000Z
- Description: “E.T.,” a short experience of eating a homemade E.T. spice bagel, written Thursday, August 27, 2026 poem 239 in a series of 365 poems written by Diana Ludwick in 2026. Photo: "Everything Spice and Bagels are Nice," by Diana Ludwick © 2026.
- Author: Diana Ludwick
- Tags: 2026 Poetry Challenge, Culinary, Eating and Drinking, Humor, Of Cooking, Poems, Pun-y / Tongue-in-Cheek, Recipe-ish, Recipes for Life, Runaway Imagination, Short-form Musings, Unserious, 4-D, Acacia, August, Bagel, Breakfast, Carving, E.T., Eat Me First, Everything, Everything Spice, Giza, Googly, High Summer, Lemuresque, Maldon Sea Salt, Marrow, Memorable, Molars, Monster Eyes, Philadelphia, Philadelphia Cream Cheese, Philly, Plate, Schmear, Shallot, Snowbanks, Steamy, Summer, Teeth, Tellicherry Peppercorns, UFOs, Un-Instagrammable, #Migrated-1792872215677, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-10-24 20:03

Two UFOs land on my plate  
a homemade Everything spice bagel,   
sawn in half atop an acacia carving board,  
then toasted until steamy and craggy  
spread with full-fat Philly cream cheese   
— the only acceptable option —  
and then sprinkled with additional hand-tossed E.T. spice.  
  
Looking up at me with their googly monster eyes,  
my lemuresque breakfast will be a memorable one.  
  
A pyramidal crystal of salt   
weighs down a wave of schmear,  
teasing: "Eat Me First."  
  
I take a hearty, un-Instagrammable bite   
and I chew through the boiled-then-baked bagel skin  
and mash my molars deep into the spongy inner bagel marrow.  
I savor the spicy oils and crunch of cracked Tellicherry peppercorns;  
My front teeth skate along the smooth snowbanks of Philadelphia's best.  
  
At last, my teeth make contact   
with the fourth pyramid of Giza:   
an epic formation of Maldon sea salt.  
  
I crunch-crunch my way through fields of fennel,   
and sheer wisps of air-dried shallot.  
Toasted sesames lodge in my gum line;   
poppy and nigella seeds soonfollow suit.   
  
My breakfast is in 4-D; I feel it all; I am this bagel.  
E.T. — it really is everything.