You’re toast

In Competition No. 2986 you were invited to submit a poem about a deadly foodstuff.
 
My inspiration for this assignment was the appalling news that toast can kill you, which is yet another depressing indication that everything good is bad for you. Or perhaps, as Max Gutmann suggests in the closing couplet of his winning entry, it’s safer simply to regard all food as a potential enemy.
 
Honourable mentions to Mae Scanlan and Jennifer Moore, and £25 each to the winners. D.A. Prince scoops the bonus fiver.
 
Amanita phalloides!

Yes, my darling, just for you —
hunter-gathered when your need is
homely soup to add them to.
 
Fresh and creamy-clean, so wholesome;
don’t they tempt your appetite!
Mushrooms feed your hungry soul; come
this soup is exactly right.
 
Shun the supermarkets’ offering —
carbon footprint, packaged, stale;
these are handmade personal profferings
like the stuff of fairy tale.
 
Not for me, alas — my diet:
but I’d have some if I could.
Still, you’ll love it when you try it.