Our Children Are Our Only Hope

http://cookingnelsons.blogspot.com/2006/02/king-ranch-chicken.html

MY Momma Said I Had To Post These Poems to Give This Blog a Little Class. (I think the Nelson Sisters have quite a little culture of their own goin on...but hey, why not add a little poetry.)

I have been rehearsing the following poems for my "Oral Interpretation of Children's Literature" Class, and they make me hungry. That makes them eligible for cookbook blogging, right? (As if anything didn't go here...pah).

Here are my poems:
Mi Mama Cubana
By Mimi Chapra

When mi mama cubana cooks arroz con pollo
Her smile is as wide as a watermelon

Cutting green onions the tongue of mi mama goes clickety-clack
Her silver bracelets slide up and down jingling-jangling

With a dash of saffron spice mi mama turns boiling rice bright yellow
Ay! Sweet aroma of arroz con pollo carries me away!

Mi familia, we eat arroz con pollo delicioso.

We sing “la cucaracha” con mucho gusto!

We dance mambo, tango, cha cha cha.

Closing my eyes, I see palm trees swaying
Sea gulls circling, haciendas pink and green.
Still, si si, with my eyes open I taste salty saffron Cuba.

Muchas gracias, mi mama cubana for cooking up an island in your tiny New York kitchen.

Making Tortillas
By Henry Quintero

When my mother makes tortillas
For my father and for me,
The steel chimes, the rock pings and rattles
With each pass over the dough.
My mother tells me that her rolling pin is
Singing I LOVE YOU, I LOVE YOU.

Garden Footprints
By Lori Marie Carlson

I leave footprints
On the gravel path to
Mama’s garden full of CALABAZSAS,
TOMATES, GIRASOLES.
Footprints
Leading to and from this place,
Where mama spends her afternoons
Beneath a hat so big it
Shades me too
While
I kneel down and
Help plant flowers

:) Did they make you hungry? I need breakfast. First I need to figure out what "girasoles" are, cuz right now I am craving them and I haven't a clue what they are! Is that bad?

Hope you enjoyed :)
Love, Courtney