Para Fiesta: Watermelon and Snow Cones—A Potential Angel’s Quandary

“When one has tasted watermelon, he knows what angels eat.”

—Mark Twain

With the remote possibility that I might go to heaven I began to wonder what kind of food and drink they might serve there, even though hell is a more probable location for me. If the main drink served in hell is hot pepper, pickle juice and vinegar served boiling hot every eternally hot day from morning to midnight, I wondered if angels eat watermelon and shave ice all day in heaven?

What Angels Eat is Red, Juicy, and Sweet

Well there is soft delicious Angel Food sponge cake

I’ve often wondered if any heavenly creatures eat it

this confectionary delicacy is somewhat tricky to bake

I also wonder whether heaven’s angels actually need it

There is chocolate Devil’s Food cake a delightful treat

a deep dark cocoa dessert pastry with a delicious smell

with chocolate frosting chocolate ice cream a must repeat

tempting fallen angels into a semi-sweet dark caloric hell

Finally, a heavenly fruit perfect for every earthly dwelling

and all the devilish boys and angelic girls spit out its seeds

watermelon fields, farmer’s markets, grocery stores selling

a medium size watermelon will fill a small family’s needs

Watermelon is “sandia” in Spanish, “chandia” in Chamorro

angels and devils want it yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

Koans : A Cool Hand Hones—Snowcones!

I would build that cone in air

that slushy cone those mounds of ice

and all who slurped would taste it there

and all would shout, Snowcone! Shave ice!

its melting juicy colors rare

piled in shaved mounds so nice

so close your eyes and taste with joy

summer delights for girl and boy

dessert in Polar Paradise.

(some koan poems first published Sept. 1, 2017)

The Hot Pepper Sauce is the Boss

(after W.C. Williams poem, The Red Wheelbarrow)

So many depend upon a hot pepper sauce

splashed without restraint on some fried chicken.

Finadené giya fiesta (pepper sauce for the fiesta)

gayera agupa pupuenge (cockfight tomorrow night)

guaha bula finadené falak (lots of hot pepper sauce to go)

para talonan yan tinola (for the dead cock and chicken soup)

Biba San José yan Biba San Roqué (long live those saints)

yan Biba Pepé Batbon lokkue (Joe the bearded rooster also).

Joey aka “Pepe Batbon” Connolly is a retired educator who taught in the CNMI, NOLA, and LVNV. He is the Poet Laureate of Tinian and enjoys stargazing.