Lynn Edge

Frida and Me

The cookbook falls open to a black and white photo of young Frida Kahlo: thick eyebrows almost touching, dark hair parted in the middle and slicked back, a bulky pre-Columbian necklace around her neck, and a rebozo crossed over her breast.

Dia de los Muertos
a long tiered skirt swirls
around my ankles

Her favorite recipes are arranged by months. November features Chicken in Pipian Sauce. On the next page is a complicated recipe for Tamales in Banana Leaves.

chili peppers
cooking in a clay pot
autumn heat

For almost half of her life, Frida was bedridden, looking at a mirror above her head, but when her health allowed, she loved to cook. I think of her when my back aches.

mortar and pestle
a faint scent of garlic
lingers