Sounds like N should have called a county sanitarian post-haste. I made my living as a cook from 1989 to 2012, with a two-year stint as Dietary Manager in a Nursing facility. I've done every task there is to be done in a kitchen, save for expert cooking (I'm a cook, not a chef). The moral problem of consuming something forbidden because of religious observance is dwarfed here by the far greater concern for "public 'ealth!"* Foodborne illness is traumatic, can be fatal, and often is. People die because of poor hand-washing, or no hand-washing, poor food-handling practices, poor sanitation, inept and dangerous food storage practices, refrigerators and freezers that do not maintain proper temperatures, lazy or careless food shipment drivers, lazy or careless kitchen staff, cross-contamination in food-preparation, underpaid, overworked, disgruntled grunts with axes to grind fixing your salad with no gloves, no hairnets, and a three-day growth of facial stubble (men included ), with little grasp of what the unsafe temperature zone is, who wipe their hands on filthy aprons or dirty hand towels, who think the handsink is a place for storing their portable CD players, whose sole priority is making time for their next cigarette break or phone call to their significant other... [/uppity poetry critter]
Though the media paints a far different picture, poor food-handling and sanitation practice goes on more in restaurants than in institutional facilities - at least from what I've observed - because the former, here in Imperial Rome [D'oh!** what a give away!***] I mean...here in America, are typically only required to undergo bi-annual county inspections, while the latter have to deal with annual state inspections as well as county. County inspections are often a kiss on the cheek: a half-hour tops, if the sanitarian is overworked, which is most often the case (this applies to restaurants in general, not five-star establishments or prestigious venues). State inspections last a minimum of three days and usually take up to four, and the state comes as a team of surveyors whose sole intention is to catch you with your pants down. If they have an inspector in-training, then you're really in for it. Occasionally, when the state people are suspected of not giving the white-glove treatment, or if there is a major problem, the feds come in. Yay (and there was much rejoicing...***) !
But [and...now...*] seriously, ignore what I've just typed, because it has precious little to do with poetry, or why I didn't care for this poem. I think it would be fine for a song lyric, but as poetry it leaves much to be desired. I would fine-tune the metrical problems John B. mentions, and consider Michael's comments with keen attention. I would also refrain from any over-long defense of the poem, or equally long explanations of what you wanted the poem to say and how you went about trying to say it. Doing that doesn't improve the poem's chance of being appreciated or generally well-liked. From what I've observed over the past 12 yrs of workshopping, it causes the exact opposite to happen, every time.
* John Cleese (father's real surname name was Cheese)
** Homer (no relation)
*** Michael Palin (no relation, leastways, none that I've heard of)
