This is My Taco Bell Poem

By Tricia Bogle

Before they divorced, my parents would sometimes take me to Taco Bell. The menu wasn’t like it is now. The options were limited (like my understanding at age 6) taco tostada basic burrito, side of refried beans
How I loved those refried beans in their paper cup, confetti-shreds of cheese melting on top. It was easy to be happy if only for a moment. My father would criticize my mother for eating a second tostada. He’d watch like a predator as she returned to the counter after eating the first.
(Does Taco Bell even make a tostada now?) Things got so much worse when the taco salad was introduced.

Tricia Bogle (she/her/hers) is a Missouri-born, NYC-based poet. She holds a B.A. in Creative Writing & Philosophy (Loyola Baltimore), an M.A. in Political Theory, and a Ph.D. in Philosophy (Fordham). For over a decade she taught advanced courses in bioethics, exploring ways to negotiate what is human in a world increasingly mediated by technology. These days, she can often be found sitting on a park bench in Washington Heights, sipping cafe con leche from her favorite bodega and reading translations of Basho out loud to the trees.

Her poems have been featured in Passengers Journal, Cagibi, South Dakota Review, Chautauqua, Pine Row, and Digging Press. Her ekphrastic collaboration, In a Garden of Small Dreams: Art + Poetry in Conversation (with digital artist Shu Tu), was exhibited at the New York Public Library, Hamilton Grange. https://www.nypl.org/events/exhibitions/community-showcases/garden-small-dreams-art-poetry-conversation

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