The comfort in the smell of bacon in the morning
is mostly burning fat & salt, but the taste is sweet
as the part of the pig that stores the soul.
“If you don’t bless it, it might choke you,” Ma likes
to say over the plates. My definition of family
includes the sense kinfolk know & think they know
things about you, but only share these things
with family members when you ain’t in the room.
Last time I was home, my cousin offered me hash,
a ground-up, boiled, antebellum mash of leftover
hog—liver & lung, brain to snout & skull—covered
in hot sauce & served on a bed of instant rice.
I said, “Hell no,” but I let a bit touch my tongue
to be polite, before saying “Hell no” twice.
Terrance Hayes, a former MacArthur Fellow, is the author of “So to Speak” and “Watch Your Language,” among other books.
