Psalm of Imagined Hunger by Edwina Stanton Babcock

If I were starving in Nantucket I would first / Go down to the beach and dig for quahaugs; / Or some scallops. / Or drop overboard a neat little lobster car, / Or row to a place where there are wild oysters; / Then I would hang around the docks at five o'clock / When the fishermen come in, / And perhaps get an extra plaicefish / Or some shark or black fish, / (Though I shouldn't like to eat horseshoe crab or squid) / That failing, I would go out on the moors and snare a pheasant; / I would catch a rabbit and though I wouldn't know / how to cook it, an owl. / To eat crow, I have heard is not judicious -- but how / about marsh-hawk? / If it were August I would get Irish moss out of the sea, / And flavor it with cranberries. / I would then go crabbing near Our Island Home; / If it were July I should live in the blueberry patches / And find black berries, (you know where! ) / And get strawberries in the old cemetery.

I would go mushrooming (very prudently) in fields near Thorn Lots. / I would go beach plumming (very early) on the State Road / I would get in touch with grape vines near Wauwinet / And with hazel nuts near 'Sconset / And dig for swamp root out near Madaket. / Elder berry would be a last resort! / I would hang over the fences of a certain yard in Hussey Street / To see if grapes and pears would come to me. / Or I would interrupt tea-parties on Pleasant Street / Boldly walking in and asking for apples. / Of course I would weed the potato patch of anyone that asked me to / For two potatoes. / I would help with the melons and do what I could / for corn and pumpkins; / Peaches and cherries I would pluck on shares / But if all these things failed I would go to a little house, / Where they always know what I mean / And ask for food!