It’s not about the recipe…
Making hot tamales is a process
First, you gather in a loved one’s kitchen
and find the well-worn recipe
Stir up the cornmeal, shortening and hot water
while you laugh about how
the generation before you used to
perform this same ritual
Next it’s time
to roll the meat for the filling
and laugh some more
because somebody thought
the meat logs were funny
Then comes the assembly line
of putting the cornmeal mixture
onto the tamale wrapper
sticking the meat log inside
and wrapping it all up
repeating until we’re done
We congratulate each other
saying “these look like
they turnt out right” and
laughing about how
someone ended up with
cornmeal in her hair
Then it’s time to
boil them all up and
smother them in the chili
that’s been patiently waiting
And savor this
Belly-and-Soul-warming meal
seasoned with
Laughter
patchworkandpotpourri 