Anti-Heroin Chic
  • Home
  • About
  • Blog
  • Music
  • Art
  • Comedy
  • About Our Contributors
  • Masthead
  • Issues
  • About our contributors - 2019
  • About Our Contributors - 2020
  • About Our Contributors - 2021
  • Home
  • About
  • Blog
  • Music
  • Art
  • Comedy
  • About Our Contributors
  • Masthead
  • Issues
  • About our contributors - 2019
  • About Our Contributors - 2020
  • About Our Contributors - 2021
Search by typing & pressing enter

YOUR CART

​

10/25/2019

The Leg by Tara Campbell

Picture
                 Tony Slade CC            



The Leg
 
Mom was a knitter.
Every Christmas
her kids and her grandkids,
her sisters and brothers
and all of their children
still hang up the stockings she made.
We’ve all held on to
the hats and the scarves
and the baby blankets
and dishcloths and mittens
and all of the warmth
that knitted and purled
from her hands.
 
She sold her work too,
at craft sales and bazaars,
and had other bizarres
in her room at my sister’s house:
scuff-faced dolls sporting
yellowing dresses
and matted hair
blinking one lazy eye
and lurking in corners
behind the mechanical monkey,
banana-yellow hat
in his hand,
electronic stigmata
awaiting a coin
to set him rolling
on creaky plastic skates.
 
She wouldn’t get rid of
the things we’d played with,
wooden blocks with chipped letters,
dusty puppets and Barbies
with broken knees,
said they just needed
a little love
a little TLC
“You know those doll doctors?” she would say
“They just need one of those.”
 
We didn’t know any doll doctors.
 
Church wasn’t Mom’s thing
so after she died
instead of a service
we had a picnic
(it was early September
and unusually warm)
and we pulled bales of yarn
from her closets
(her favorite, Red Heart)
and hauled bins of knitting
and pallets of patterns
out of her room
to take to the
picnic-not-service.
 
Everyone got to take something,
all the kids and grandkids
nieces and nephews and step-grandkids
and cousins and first wives
or second husbands and all their friends too,
everyone chose a scarf
or a hat
or a baby blanket,
we all held something soft
to remind us of what it felt like
when she called us “honey”
and we all kept digging for more
until we found the leg.
 
A mannequin leg.
It was her display.
She used to knit legwarmers
said they were making a comeback
and maybe they were--
there weren’t any left in the bin,
just a leg
without its warmer.
 
We propped it up,
toes pointing skyward
enjoying a yarn bath;
we laughed at it
sticking up out of the bin;
we wore scarves in late summer
and missed her like hell.

​
Picture
Tara Campbell (www.taracampbell.com) is a writer, teacher, Kimbilio Fellow, and fiction editor at Barrelhouse. Prior publication credits include SmokeLong Quarterly, Masters Review, Monkeybicycle, Jellyfish Review, Booth, Strange Horizons, and Escape Pod/Artemis Rising. She's the author of a novel, TreeVolution, a hybrid fiction/poetry collection, Circe's Bicycle, and a short story collection, Midnight at the Organporium. She received her MFA from American University in 2019.


Comments are closed.

    Author

    Write something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview.

    Archives

    December 2024
    November 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    March 2023
    December 2022
    October 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    August 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.