The Hot Sauce Madness Love Burn Suite is a book of poems that revolves around the beloved and sometimes notorious culture of hot sauce and hot peppers. Its 814 rhyming couplets delve deeply into that rich and addicting world, whether they focus on peppers' flavor, pain, linguistics, or history. Come take a bite out of these verses, and see if you can handle the heat.

1912: pharmacist Wilbur

Lincoln Scoville first

measured

the "heat" of peppers

(the word's in quotes

because there's no

actual heat in this

equation, just spiciness,

which hoodwinks

our bodies into thinking

physical flames are

licking our

tongues, throat, lips).

Chilies aren't caliente, which

implies

heat from an actual fire,

but picante,

the word we

use for heat that arises

from spice.