THEY EAT HORSES, DON'T THEY?

or THE NEIGH-SAYERS
or MR. ED BURGERS
or HORSE SHIT 

for TC, SJ and JM-G

1. 

Horse meat is the culinary name for meat
cut from a horse. It is a major meat

in only a few countries, but it forms
a significant part of the culinary traditions

of others. It is slightly sweet, tender, low in fat
and high in protein. In the late Paleolithic era

wild horses formed an important source of food.
Horse meat was also eaten as part of Germanic

pagan religious ceremonies in northern Europe
particularly associated with the worship of Odin

2.

France dates its taste for horse meat
to the Revolution. Just as hairdressers and tailors

set themselves up to serve commoners, the horses
maintained by aristocracy as a sign of prestige

ended up alleviating the hunger of the lower classes.
It was during the Napoleonic campaigns

when the surgeon-in-chief of Napoleon's grand army,
Dominique-Jean Larrey, served horse as a soup.

In Aspern–Essling, cut from the supply lines,
the cavalry used the horses' breastplates  

as cooking pots and gunpowder as seasoning.
In 1866 the French government legalised horse meat.

3.

It is a taboo in some English speaking countries.
It is a taboo amongst the Romani people and in Brazil.

Horse meat is not generally eaten in Spain (except in the North)
Horse meat is forbidden by Jewish dietary laws.

In the past horse meat has been eaten by Persians, Turks, Hanafi and Tartars,
but it has never been eaten in the Maghreb.

Popes Gregory III and Zachary instructed Saint Boniface
to forbid the eating of horsemeat to those he converted.

Despite the Anglophone taboo, horse meat was eaten in Britain,
especially in Yorkshire, until the 1930's and in times of post-war shortage.

4.

Beef (63%), Onion (10%), 
Wheat Flour, Water, Beef Fat,
Soya Protein Isolate, Salt,
Onion Powder, Yeast, Sugar, Barley Malt Extract,
Garlic Powder, White Pepper Extract,
Celery Extract, Onion Extract. Horse.

BURRS: A DISAMBIGUATION

for RB

Stuck in its fur,

the cat was covered

in burrs. Chandler

Burr, who said queer

was like being born

left handed. Burrs

in the throat; R's

flipped and turned

in the Nurth–

East or the Norse

Borr, who fathered

Odin, war monger

and chief of Asgard.

Raymond Burr,

Ironside's wheelchair,

Perry Mason, lawyer.

Gore Vidal's Burr

from his Empire

Narratives. Burr,

the village in Nebraska.

Richard Burr, the senator

from North Carolina,

staunch Republicurn

and son of a minister.

Or maybe burrs,

tungsten carbide cutters

used in dentistry that turn

so fast a touching finger's

skin will flex away unhurt.

And lastly Burr,

a relatively young crater

on Callisto, moon of Jupiter.

Disambiguated in its fur

like meteors

bound for fertilizing earth.