Family Story VI
By Megan Leonard
The recipes passed down include stale bread, one egg, a sip of milk, a little sugar. A potato cut four ways. My kids don’t know there is no money for syrup or meat or milk again. They say I am the best mom, the best mom, the best mom. I turn crusts into joy, I sing a bold song with my bad voice and the pan is just the right heat. My kids dance, they silly all around the table, because I am the best mom, the best. I show them how to beat the egg, how to dip the bread just enough, tell them this is a family recipe. What kept my mother, my nana, her people alive—all this, all this to pass down.
Megan Leonard is the author of Larkspur Queen (Nightingale & Sparrow Press, 2023) and book of lullabies (Milk & Cake Press, 2020). Her work has appeared in Transom, Tupelo Quarterly, The Bellevue Literary Review, and elsewhere. Meg is a mad, sick writer living on the tiny New Hampshire coast.
12/19 / Meet the Artist with visiting poet-in-residence Kristen Renee Miller / The Library at The Betsy-South Beach, Miami Beach, FL / Live and Live-Streamed on Instagram Live/Facebook Live at @swwimmiami / 6:00 pm EST / Free
12/19 / Poetry Reading with visiting poet-in-residence Kristen Renee Miller + Arsimmer McCoy / The Library at The Betsy-South Beach, Miami Beach, FL / Live and Live-Streamed on Instagram Live/Facebook Live at @swwimmiami / 7:30 pm EST / Free
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I was very moved by your poem. Great sound sense too, the repetition, the sing-song quality. So much said and unsaid and with such economy and grace. Thank you.