Origin Stories - Carol Deering

    The Rio Grande Café  
    by Carol Deering

    See
    the taco lady

    her ruby slippers
    hanging out one side

    of a papier-mâché taco,
    her arm bent over her eyes.

    She’s resting while the jukebox
    slides another oldie 

    and the toy train roars around 
    again. Each flash of light

    as the doors swing open, 
    she’s off in migraine-aura land. 

    The flautas, enchiladas, 
    ear-splitting chatter below

    fuel the thunder-sunset 
    ripples of her eyelids, 

    the lightning roots 
    of her crinkly hair, 

    her fainting
    brilliance 

    in this depot, 
    a timeless

    fragile 
    lure. 


    *first published in Gyroscope Review, winter 2019

Origin Stories – The Rio Grande Café

I don’t do well with prompts. I usually have to notice (taste, smell, etc.) something to get inspired. Whenever my husband and I made a trip to Salt Lake City, we liked to eat at the Rio Grande Café, set in the historic (1910) Rio Grande train depot. Warm memories of times our son and his family joined us. Warm Mexican comfort food and cool comfort drinks. Always crowded, laughter from the kitchen, always a noisy wait for the food. I’d look up at the taco lady, lounging in her papier-maché taco, one arm flung over her eyes, red shoes dangling. I’d sympathize with her when the front doors opened and lights flashed and noises grew. Somehow I WAS the taco lady. She/I got migraine auras. But when the food was served, I’d forget her. Still, I thought she deserved a poem!

Bio

Carol L. Deering has twice received the Wyoming Arts Council Poetry Fellowship (2016, judge Rebecca Foust; 1999, judge Agha Shahid Ali). She was also awarded a writing residency at Devils Tower, and years ago in Washington State had the privilege of interviewing Richard Hugo. Her first book, Havoc & Solace: Poems from the Inland West, published by Sastrugi Press in fall 2018, can be purchased online from Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Book https://www.sastrugipress.com/sastrugi-press-authors/carol-l-deering/ and social media: webpage https://www.caroldeering.com/ and I’m on Facebook.

Link to my interview with Richard Hugo, 1982. It took place at Columbia Basin College.