His Mexican stash sells
au natural, is way better
than any of that junk
in the supermercado.
The snails caught live
and priced at a premium,
fresh hauls of chapulines
to fry up crispy. And not
to be missed: giant-winged
ants, flash-frozen, all
protein, and so delicious
in salsa. His best-sellers
never clog the heart
like those thick armadillo
steaks. Two hundred twenty
-five a pound, las chicatanas
are the real deal. He agrees
the creepy gusanos de maguey
are a matter of taste, shrugs
at the disappearing trays
of invertebrate species
his compadres always raid.
This bug monger's a meat
eater. On the run, he goes
for one more taco, digs into
his Huevos SPAM® Cheros,
dreams of sunny Mazatlan
beaches, one more mezcal.
© 2013 Maureen E. Doallas
_______________________________
This poem is inspired by the "Bottled and Canned" theme this month at TweetSpeakPoetry and Every Day Poems, which are spotlighting the poetry of processed meat (think SPAM®) and by a feature story that appeared in July in my local newspaper The Washington Post. Read the theme's introduction and listen to the playlist.
Translations: supermercado means supermarket; chapulines are grasshoppers or crickets; chicatanas are giant-winged ants; gusanos de maguey are meaty grubs (worms). Mezcal is a type of liquor made from agave. Entomophagy is the scientific term for insect-eating.
Posts
6 comments:
A good combination of inspiration...
Brilliant flows so well
A wonderful piece-- the snails sound, um, gross, but I think I'd prefer them to the trademarked-in-a-can Spam anyday. Fun read ~peace, Jason
Wonderful poem! I was dazzled by the Mexican references, having lived there for a while, and strangely reminded of a shopping aisle in a market on Kauai that has one long shelf filled with every type of Spam a local might ever need. It's huge there.
Enjoyed the write, will pass on the tasting! :-)
This is fun, Maureen. And as odd as this sounds, I think I'd like to try all of the foodstuffs mentioned in your poem.
Am I crazy?
Post a Comment