there’s a bag of pasta in the fridge i’ve eaten everything else all there is now is this bag of pasta i check the date it’s a bit past but not too long i’m confident it’s still good so i open the bag it’s plastic a thick clear layer in which the pasta slides around if i move the bag or else it just sits there and degrades day by day very slowly because my fridge is so cold but now it’s on the kitchen board i cut open the bag the metal scissors slice through the membrane of thick shiny plastic transparent but shiny and shiny too are the pieces of pasta as i slide them on a plate now the plastic bag is empty or not quite it’s greasy and oily pasta residue sticks to its insides if i squeeze it or bend it i can see the slither of oil across the inner surface of the pastic bag i stick my finger into it it feels cold and slick the greasy substance rubs off on my finger i put more fingers inside and now they are weirdly slimy lubricated by the pasta oil and grease my fingers now smell faintly of olives or whatever they use probably not olives but cheap sunflower oil anyway it’s a strange smell and i’m unsure if i should taste it but then i lick carefully on my pasta grease stained fingers and it tastes indistinct faintly plasticky and oily but at least not stale i imagine it to be the taste of low tier olives low tier but still olives and now i feel remorse for having tasted my fingers because now my tongue feels coated in pasta oil and plastic why do i keep making these bad choices now i turn to the pasta on the plate and i pick one up it feels cold and soft and sticky i squeeze it but not too hard just so i can feel the texture of the filling through the pasta the filling is lumpy small ground bits of what exactly i’m not sure i wasn’t paying attention i was just hungry or curious perhaps more curious than hungry wondering how the pasta would feel traveling from my mouth passing through my throat down into my stomach or else if eating the contents of this bag would somehow make me feel any different than before i cut open the bag and now i squeeze the pasta again and i try to peel it open to see inside it and figure out its content or flavour these terms used synonymously as if they were the same thing and one thing would not taste very different in various stages of degradation or ripeness i wonder if these are synonyms as well as my finger probes the cold and wet texture inside the pasta it is something minced a substance ground beyond cohesion as if approaching atom level as if taste would apply to solid food and flavour to its components and the contents of this bag are all shrinking components at this stage they are a red and pink substance perhaps this is meat and there is something white it glistens i assume this is fat that i feel under the pressure of my fingers it smells weird and metallic and i wonder if i should taste it as well but instead i stick my finger into the open piece of pasta with slow unwavering force until it bursts the back of the pasta and its filling spills out and saps down the soggy bits of wheat dough that formerly contained it
