The Chili Bowl Story

Hi everyone,

My thanks to J. Patrick Lewis for his splendid poem yesterday and to Sandy Asher for leading off this month’s WRITERS AT WORK topic, “Putting Online Challenges to Work for You.”

Don’t forget that the Word of the Month Poetry Challenge word is BOWL. Thanks to Don Barrett for suggesting it. I’ll try for an original bowl poem soon but for now here’s one from THE ALLIGATOR IN THE CLOSET. I’ve posted it before but it has been a while. Sandy and I have the remaining four small, round chili bowls from long ago when Sandy’s family owned a grocery store and cafe in Fair Play, Missouri. These bowls must have a thousand stories. I tried to capture some of them.

THE CHILI BOWL STORY
David L. Harrison

This bowl came from a diner
In a village called Fair Play
Where people went for chili
When winter came to stay.

Bundled in their jackets,
Tracking in the snow,
They must have greeted neighbors
More than eighty years ago.

I bet they traded gossip
And talked of winter still
And lingered over chili
To cut the bitter chill.

Spoons would click and clatter
While people laughed away
Enjoying one another
On a cold and wintry day.

The diner’s gone forever,
Shuttered up at last,
But when we use this chili bowl
I think about the past.

I think of all the stories
That we will never know
Of the hearty folk in Fair Play
A long long time ago.