ALGO PICANTE
There are peaceful explosions
in tongues of the world
that remind us how spicy life is.
Red pepper gets our attention.
Love, in its quiet way,
is a shock and when we feel it
we go, “What is this?!”
Maybe it’s brown sugar
with the sweetness of
Costa Rican fields.
Then there are many ingredients to love:
lemon juice that puckers my lips,
oil smooths me over,
tart vinegar gives me second thoughts to savor,
cumin brings India to the table,
and of course garlic wards off
ancient and modern political menace.
Algo picante means “something spicy.”
Simple for a tongue, yet also
perhaps, a form of awakening.
David Lauterstein, 2026
https://algopicante.com/
