A Fine Cuisine Memory

It now seems incredible
to me that once I knew
three Kickapoo indians
in Oklahoma
who opened a Mexican café
and called it El Burrito
and kept burros in a pen
just outside of town

These boys had no experience
with Mexican cuisine
but they hired Tico Chavez
as chef and cleanup man
after he hurt his back
and couldn't lift feed sacks
at the mill

Tico's wife Rosie helped him on weekends
always took the customers' money
because Tico couldn't make change

Papa loved Tico's chili
would make his own change
on weekdays if he came to town
told me before he died
"That boy Tico made real chili"

Notes

McDaniel, Wilma. (2001) Borrowed Coats. Hanging Loose Press, Brooklyn, New York.
Courtesy University of California, Merced Library. Copyright owned by the Regents of the University of California.