The Table

by Kim Soles

The table held the roasted bird with all of its tender fixings. Arms lifted, passing giant festive bowls stuffed with mashed potatoes and cranberries and overflowing woven baskets of fresh rolls, circled to the right and left without order. Chatter and clatter continued after Grandma Rose preached her Jesus-full extra thankful blessing. New York stories laced the air from the home-for-the-holidays daughter and sports lingo of the day ahead filtered in from the boys. Grandma Rose had her turn chitchatting about her dearest friend Jesus Christ, her see-thru, baby blues captivating her audience as she confessed concocting a drink of Clorox bleach with a mighty wish to abort her second daughter. Her daughter managed the potion, as Rose continued the confession, taking responsibility of her daughter’s inability to conceive children and asked for forgiveness at the table of giving.

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Kim Soles is a designer, nature photographer and writer who escaped from New York in 2001 and lives in Philadelphia, exactly one hundred miles from Brooklyn.