For no discernible reason, this week's Poetry Friday concerns cephalopods and cooking. Just the mood we're in this week.

Without further ado, from the collection True Concessions — winner of the 2010 Archibald Lampman Award for Poetry — here is Craig Poile's weirdly wonderful poem, "How to Trim Squid."

How to Trim Squid

After instructions included in an issue of Canadian House and Home

I understand now that what I got was
Whole squid, the kind with heads on,
Requiring me to twist the top part off
While pulling out the internal organs,

To cut off the tentacles, and discard
The hard bony bit that was attached
(The rest, at least, was good for cooking),
Peel off and discard, too, the spotted membrane
(Or "skin') on the outside of the body.

All I really wanted was the body,
A hollow, white, rubbery tube,
Bagged and delivered into clean hands:
Nothing more to do than slice it
Into rings and follow the recipe.