United States, (b. 1967)
The Gospel of Barbecue
for Alvester James
- Long after it was
- necessary, Uncle
- Vess ate the leavings
- off the hog, doused
- them with vinegar sauce.
- He ate chewy abominations.
- Then came high pressure.
- Then came the little pills.
- Then came the doctor
- who stole Vess’s second
- sight, the predication
- of pig’s blood every
- fourth Sunday.
- Then came the stillness
- of barn earth, no more
- trembling at his step.
- Then came the end
- of the rib, but before
- his eyes clouded,
- Uncle Vess wrote
- down the gospel
- of barbecue.
- Chapter one:
- Somebody got to die
- with something at some
- time or another.
- Chapter two:
- Don’t ever trust
- white folk to cook
- your meat until
- it’s done to the bone.
- Chapter three:
- December is the best
- time for hog killing.
- The meat won’t
- spoil as quick.
- Screams and blood
- freeze over before
- they hit the air.
- Chapter four, Verse one:
- Great Grandma Mandy
- used to say food
- you was whipped
- for tasted the best.
- Chapter four, Verse two:
- Old Master knew to lock
- the ham bacon chops
- away quick or the slaves
- would rob him blind.
- He knew a padlock
- to the smokehouse
- was best to prevent
- stealing, but even the
- sorriest of slaves would
- risk a beating for a full
- belly. So Christmas time
- he give his nasty
- leftovers to the well
- behaved. The head ears
- snout tail fatback
- chitlins feet ribs balls.
- He thought gratitude
- made a good seasoning.
- Chapter five:
- Unclean means dirty
- means filthy means
- underwear worn too
- long in summertime heat.
- Perfectly good food
- can’t be no sin.
- Maybe the little
- bit of meat on ribs
- makes for lean eating.
- Maybe the pink flesh
- is tasteless until you add
- onions garlic black
- pepper tomatoes
- soured apple cider
- but survival ain’t never been
- no crime against nature
- or Maker. See, stay alive
- in the meantime, laugh
- a little harder. Go on
- and gnaw that bone clean.
About the Poet:
Honoree Fanonne Jeffers, United States, (b. 1967), is a poet, educator, novelist and essayist. She received a BA from Talladega College and an MFA from the University of Alabama. A native southerner, Jeffers has lived on the prairie since 2002 as a Full Professor of English at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, OK.
Jeffers is the author of five critically acclaimed books of poetry. Her first novel (and sixth book), The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois, is out from Harper in (2021). She has won fellowships from the American Antiquarian Society, the Aspen Summer Words Conference, the Bread Loaf Writers Conference, the MacDowell Colony, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Rona Jaffe Foundation, the Vermont Studio Center, and the Witter Bynner Foundation through the Library of Congress, and in 2020, she was inducted into the Alabama Writers Hall of Fame; both notations recognize lifetime achievement.
Jeffers has read her work at universities, conferences, and in communities across the country, including the Library of Congress. For over twenty years, She has been lifting her voice on issues of black culture, racism, American history, and gender through the medium of writing. [DES-06/22]
Additional information:
- Honoree Fanonne Jeffers on the web: https://honoreejeffers.com/