River Road PDF Print E-mail
Written by Katie Quarles   

Mother gave me the cookbook, said: In the swamps, you ate what you could catch. She didn't lie -- the book has recipes for dove, turtle, raccoon, and squirrel. "Fry in a skillet and then boil until the meat almost leaves the bone. Serve with grits, hot biscuits, and honey." There's more: her piano fingers kneading my back, their chant, the multiple times she spent hours picking nits from the roots of my hair and humming. Also: the school night I stayed up late drinking wine with her. We took sips and said what words we tasted: bordello, metropolis, tarantella. She let me light all the candles and told me the story of the flood, from back when we lived in New Orleans. I was safe with my grandmother, but my sister was stranded. It was early afternoon, but already dark. Water up to her chest, Mom walked for miles past the open maws of manholes, car headlights distorted through filth crammed with bugs that bit her heels, leaving star-like sores that would later become infected. There's the weak tang of the stale bedroom air during one of her migraines, the soft whimper of her bones when her lupus acts up, the hospital trip we took when she had an allergic reaction and was tearing off her skin, eyes wild as a coyote's. There's the lotion she smooths on at least four times a day, rubbing her hands together like she's saying a prayer.
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Katie Quarles
About the author:
Katie Quarles is currently finishing her degree in Literature at the University of California, Santa Cruz. In 2008, she won the Ina Coolbrith Memorial Prize for poetry. Her work has been published in The King’s English.
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    As the old wisdom states: in order to understand the future, you need to understand the past. How true is that? The past entices learning, reminds us of what to do and what not to do, teaches us valuable lessons, and shows us from where we have come and how far. Women suffragists have blazed trails for our future, herbal women have taught us how to heal and nurture ourselves, our travels have taught us to value what we have or to reach for a better future, and our innermost desires poke to the surface reminding us to act, that there is more we want to do. Of course, we need to look toward the future, but the wisdom of the past must always be our companion.

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