Red Beans and Rice

You cook the vegetables down
So you can hardly tell anymore that
You're eating bell pepper or onion.
Call them vegetables
So they count for greens.
Let's not lie, though, because what we're
Really interested in here is the
Andouille and salt-pork,
The vinegar and the tony's.

Chop the onions, bell pepper, garlic.
If you put the fan by your face
It blows the onion scent away
So you only cry a little.

Chop the onions the way
Your mother does: inefficiently and
With a knife that has seen better days.
Hear your father remind you
Of the Holy Trinity, which in
Your home has garlic instead of celery
Because celery doesn't taste like anything anyway.

Mince the garlic, dice the bell pepper,
Chop the onions, wait for the
Salt-pork. The red beans are an
Excuse for the andouille and a
Mask for the vegetables.
If you add tony's at the beginning
And vinegar at the end,
Your grandmother approves
From no matter how many miles away.