If you want a free lunch,
All you have to do is smash, bleed, and work for it.
Would you like some peanuts for lunch?
Free sample, the sign on the wooden box says. Take one.
Inside the box with the sign,
behind the broken glass holding them in place,
the peanuts lie stacked, delicately pressed and balanced against the edge
ready to tumble on the first move.
To eat them, you must first smash the glass,
and hope your hands don’t bleed.
Disturb the system, and hope none cascade onto the floor,
so that no one has to work to throw away the peanuts and clean up your mess.
Cut your hand on the shards of glass,
and delicious Virginia peanuts will numb the pain,
and sterilize and suture your wounds.
Mix your blood and sweat with that of others gone before,
who punched through the systemic glass to feed themselves.
But be aware of how few peanuts there are left to go around.
The half empty wooden box has fed too many hungry workers.
And be wary of your movements.
At the slightest disturbance the nutty ecosystem may fall.
If it does, no one can eat.
The precariously placed peanuts,
overloaded with their own awkward weight,
require strategy, forethought, precision.
After all, if you want a free lunch,
All you must do is change the system.

After the painting: Free Sample, Take One (1890) by  De Scott Evans,  (American, 1847-1898).
https://collections.mfa.org/objects/34608/free-sample-take-one?ctx=dcdf474a-9b2c-4f10-a7b2-b5c6afcd5c68&idx=0

Richard Elliott Martin is a poet, Civil War historian, rock and blues musician, and graduate student in history living in Richmond, Va. Originally from Southwest Virginia, he currently attends Virginia Commonwealth University where he finished his undergrad and minored in creative writing. His poetry has appeared in Poetry Breakfast, ARTEMIS Journal, Jerry Jazz Musician, The Copperfield Review, and elsewhere.