THE MENUDO OF A CUCHIFRITO LOVE AFFAIR
-Miguel Pinero

La ruca
Juanita rosita exposita
They called her mexicana rose
Con piel de canela
Pelo darker than bustelo café
Eyes big like rellenos
Color of a ripe avocado
Her lips tasted like seasoned mangos
And her body was sweet as coconut milk
This menudo of beauty
Made my taco nights
Burn like jalapenos
Si senor… My heart was a tortilla
Then one riceless beanless night
After a heated chilly pepper tequila fight
She left
Left me like a burnt pork chop
For a chitlin hamhock buckwheat eatin’ man 
Who wore a watermelon wallet & a collard green conversation
Disturbing my macho machete pride
So that la mancha de platano
Reminded me that I was a weak mondongo
My love…my life…my pride was a burnt chicarron 
A cold mofongo
A melted piragua
I turned into a hot tamale
State of rage
An alcapurria gone insane
When I saw these two enchiladas
In a pastelillo embrace
So in my pasteles envy
My toston jealousy
That my salchicha eyes spied
The chorizo the mad morcilla drive
Asi fue que fueron
Traspasados los dos bacalaos
And now with my burrito strike
Displaying my quenepa pride
In my tamarindo smile
I remember the pegao and the uncooked taste
Of the frijol menudo of my cuchifrito
Love affair...