Good Grease

I am happy tonight because I am making some extremely high-fat vegan mashed potatoes.

And thinking of this poem by my old friend, Mary TallMountain...

Good Grease

The hunters went out with guns at dawn.

We had no meat in the village, 

No food for the tribe and the dogs.

No caribou in the caches 

All day we waited

At last! 

As darkness hung at the river we children saw them far away. 

Yes! They were carrying caribou!

We jumped and shouted  

By the fires that night we feasted 

The old ones clucked. 

sucking and smacking, sopping the juices with sourdough bread. 

The grease would warm us when the hungry winter howled.  

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX oozing, dripping and running down our chins,

brown hands shining with grease. 

We talk of it when we see each other far from home.  

Remember the marrow sweet in the bones? 

We grabbed for them like candy. 

Good Gooooood. 

Good Grease