The title of the text creates curiosity in the reader. As it is only composed by a noun, the reader is curious to find out its significance. As it comes from the semantic field f food, the reader could think the text is a food recipe.
The poem is composed by an only seven lines stanza.
Only the last line ends with a full stop: there are recurrent enjambements that connect the lines each other.
There is a rhyme between the third , the fifth and the seventh line that contributes to the rhythm of the poem.
The poet speaks in a first person narrator using reported speech.
In the poem he juxtaposes the image of a priest queuing in a fish &chips and thinking quietly "as the vinegar runs through " with the way he sometimes feels. It is a double simile and using it he wants to explain how he sometimes feel without describing it, but only making comparisons. A priest must not marry or have love relationships.
He interacts with the local people, but when it is time to have supper , everyone goes home to his family. As a priest hasn't got a family, he can only dream having a supper for two. The poet compares it with vinegar running through. Vinegar is a tasting seasoning: it makes you feel it, it is bitter. It is not a pleasant thinking for a priest.
The poem ends with a sense of melancholy.