Tofutti Cuties®
Thought I was your only one—
Find out the hard way
You merge with recycled news,
Make furniture together
Inspired by: Salomé Anna Neuhaus’ 2018 project, Monoculture, which features symbols of 45 soybean seedlings that she grew herself. Oh, and course, they’re 45 days old!
Symbol: #3 of 45
Poetic Form: Since soy is an important part of Japanese cuisine, I revisited one of my favorite Japanese forms, the tanka. Dating from the 7th century, the traditional tanka is 31 syllables written in one single line, and was often written as a little love poem. When translated into English, tankas typically are five lines long, with five syllables in the first and third lines, and seven in the second, fourth and fifth.
Process: As a vegan, I rely on soy in my plant-based diet, so I eat a variety of products made with soy. I did a little research and found that soy is also in basically everything else—building materials, rugs, particleboard, candles, ink, hydraulic fluid, refrigerators, car seats, even sneakers! I couldn’t believe it. It almost felt like soy was cheating on me, having this whole other life I didn’t know about. So I wrote a love tanka for one of my favorite frozen desserts—Tofutti Cuties®.