Cat’s Head Biscuits and Chocolate Gravy

By CL Bledsoe

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 –
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, begging
for more. She had real work to do.