BAR-B-QUE

The ribs are prepared in a certain loving way
and placed in a marinade to rest for a while.
A water bottle is filled and set to a fine spray,
and the Bar-B-Que is made ready for the affair.

The cooking temperature must be exactly right.
The tools are all cleaned and put in their place.
Slowly the coals start to glow a slight cherry red.
Then a ashen-gray and smoke curls into your face.

You go to its hidden place and get the secret sauce,
The recipe brought by grand-paw from Texas in 1843.
Place it on each rib with tender care, until an even gloss,
The aroma curls like ambrosia into the warm afternoon.

Bar-B-Que beans the only thing that is missing now.
To make the succulent things would give me a thrill.
But I ain't got no idea how to make them slippery things.
No matter how hard I try, they keep falling through the grill!

---RJ