Home from the produce section with scaly
hides of Jackfruit, the host had snubbed

the Honey Crisps that flashed waxed bodies
in a pyramid of beauty pageant lust. Soon,

under the fluorescent glare of his kitchen, eager
online singles will mingle with steaming platters

of three-legged carrots and chicken toes splayed
for the sucking. Rejection not on this menu. Well-

tempered pig snouts and octopus tentacles puckered
with tiny suckers pose stove-side like a love letter to

the plug-ugly. Hail the blemished, wrinkled, pot-bellied
or too skinny, the crooked neck, misshapen nose and

the lost or the tossed, all rescued for this feast
of meet-ups—a curry for courtship, a bienvenue

stew. Turducken, cherpumple, spaghetti sandwich
mashup, chocolate-coated cockroaches that will tickle

any risk-taker’s tongue. At the dumpster outside
two euphoric wolfrats roll around with a salami,

its guts all pock-marked and green. It’s the pairing
as much as the practice that makes it a dish.