Collards and Kale

Lex, the lich, lurks in the low country, leaning long, hard
on the history of bar-b-que in the deep south.
Careful, his cafeteria, collards and kale, keeps
a vegan menu but that faux banana pudding
made with coconut milk, sows a slow, slouching desire
for ribs rubbed ruby. His secret? He lies. Condensed milk,
a teaspoon of coconut sugar, and magic scraped off
the backside of General Lee’s casket and baked
into the vanilla wafers, round out his sordid
list of ingredients designed to make a soy boy
a savage soul-sucker in one serving and forty-
eight hours of suffering. It’s ministry, renewing
primal drives in the civilized, spreads the good news
with burnt ends.

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Image Credit: Pork belly burnt ends and collards [orwhateveryoudo.com] for the sonnet-like poem