Part of My Trip

My grandmother is telling me there are coyotes all over town and I'm looking at those gourd things she has hanging by the kitchen window. "What are those gourd things, anyway?" "Gourds." She almost doesn't want to go into the backyard anymore. "The chance of encountering a wild animal is great!" There are more deer and raccoons than before. Bobcats. Anything could come out of those woods. There used to be kids and dogs to scare things away. She picks up the yellow-brown glass chicken on the window sill. "Remember this?" "Yes." "Mamaw gave this to me, on the last Christmas she was alive, I think." She's telling me about Mamaw's taste-- she was always picking out glass doodads for the house. "Mamaw had wonderful taste. She was always put together. Wore white gloves and a fox fur to go uptown." We look at the glass chicken and think of Mamaw alive.