CL Bledsoe

Cat’s Head Biscuits and Chocolate Gravy

I only had it one time, when I was

a boy. I was playing down the hill

with cousin John. Aunt Jo Ann,

his grandmother, announced she

would make chocolate gravy. It seemed

like a bad idea. I didn’t know

how to make gravy so I didn’t know

how chocolate gravy was any different,

except that she added cocoa powder

to it. But gravy needs a vessel,

which means she had to make biscuits—

homemade, lard and flour, cat’s head

biscuits, called that because when you

break them off to cook them, they resemble

a cat’s head. You didn’t need butter,

just tore them in half and she’d ladle

some gravy over top. She told me not

to come back, tomorrow morning,

begging for more. She had real work to do.

CL Bledsoe is the author of a dozen books, most recently the poetry collection Riceland and the novel Man of Clay. He lives in northern Virginia with his daughter.