{"id":3052,"date":"2023-06-05T20:27:17","date_gmt":"2023-06-05T20:27:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/oxmag\/?page_id=3052"},"modified":"2023-06-05T20:27:17","modified_gmt":"2023-06-05T20:27:17","slug":"potato-poultice-by-mitzi-dorton","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/oxmag\/potato-poultice-by-mitzi-dorton\/","title":{"rendered":"“Potato Poultice” by Mitzi Dorton"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\tThree years old and Mama is beside me watching for my eyes to shut. The wild plum trees in the distance blur the streetlight beyond the backyard, the open window ushering in the familiar perfumes, the purple flower clusters, and yellow golden fairy hats with strings, which we pull and sip.\n\tMy father flicks the light switch separating us from the outside world.\n\t\u201cA splinter in your foot?\u201d he asks.\n\tHe holds up a potato slice he sets against my sole, then Mama wraps it tight with a strip of cloth and pulls a sock over it. Their voices intertwine, like vines that mesh.\n\t\u201cWhere\u2019d you ever hear of that?\u201d she asks.\n\t\u201cListening to the old-timers.\u201d he replies.\n\tI start to shift and rouse. Daddy shuts the light off again. \n\t\u201cListen! Listen!\u201d he says in loud whispers. He says it\u2019s a whippoorwill. \n\tThen he whistles his own version. Whip-poor-will, whip-poor-will!\n\tHe can make me believe anything.\n\tI fall into slumber as it pierces the sweet and sour, roosting on a prickly fruit tree\npecking on a plum. I will go out tomorrow and find the prodded plum, search for the bird in the flickering leafy shadows.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t*\n\tThe next morning, my parents hover over me again, pulling off the sock, pressing my foot.\n\t\u201cThat drew it out a little,\u201d Mama says as she hands him the tweezers.\n\tI draw back my chubby foot.\n\t\u201cShe\u2019s not having that!\u201d Mama responds. \n\tDaddy pulls over the big glass ashtray, where I tossed orange peels yesterday,\ndug away in bits by tiny hands, along with the smushed Lucky Strikes and peanut shells.\n\t\u201cLook what I pulled out of your foot!\u201d he exclaims. He holds up an orange peel in the tweezers. Then, a peanut shell. \u201cEven an orange seed in your foot!\u201d\n\t\u201cA cigarette butt? What! In my foot?\u201d\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s gone,\u201d they sigh. \u201cIt worked.\u201d \n\tI breathe in the wafting summer magic, which Mama deems lilac and honeysuckle at their finest. \n\tI am healed.\n<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n
Mitzi Dorton<\/strong> is author of the book, Chief Corn Tassel<\/em> from Finishing Line Press. Her poetry is in Willowdown Books, the Women of Appalachia Project anthology Women Speak<\/em>, Rattle<\/em>, SEMO Press and others. Her writing is forthcoming in Poetry South<\/em> and Arachne Press.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Three years old and Mama is beside me watching for my eyes to shut. The wild plum trees in the distance blur the streetlight beyond the backyard, the open window ushering in the familiar perfumes, the purple flower clusters, and yellow golden fairy hats with strings, which we pull and sip. My father flicks the … <\/p>\n
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