Rain Prud’homme-Cranford Goméz.
“Cooking Chaos.”
© Rain P. C. Goméz
Used by permission.
All rights reserved.
Chicken bones and red clay
Turkey feather and macaw fans rattler hair ties
Busted window taped closed with duct tape
Sister jutting lips at mother’s crooked fingers
We take laundry from her hands
Folding underwear that lost elastic the
Same way our faces loose their tightness
In the everyday use of holding us up and in —
Chicken bones boiling in the pot
Turnip greens washed and cut
Smoke rising pungent hickory
From a water heater turned smoker
Under dad’s heavy welder recycling hands
Children crossing borders
Residential school scars passed
From Papa to Mother and Aunt
To Sister and me
Fear of white sheets
Fluttering in the wind
Can’t say Black
Creole is better
French is better than that
Indian just is reality
The problem with
Louisiana geography
Cooking amidst chaos
Chicken bones and red clay
Text prepared by:
- Bruce R. Magee
Source
Goméz, Rain Prud’homme-Cranford. “Cooking Chaos.” Smoked Mullet Cornbread Crawdad Memory. Norman, OK: Montgrel Empire Pr., 2012. Print. Copyright © 2015 by Rain P. C. Goméz. Used by permission. All rights reserved.