Coming to the Prairie and Staying

The first time I came to the Prairie des Femmes it was January 2004 and the field didn't look like much. It was in an area near Arnaudville, which, despite its proximity to my hometown, I had never been to. Happy and curious to go and see this land my new beau had put a down payment on, we drove out, just three months after meeting. He wanted to know if I liked it. If it was 'too far'. From what? It was far, but I did like it enough. It was country land, and cheap and in the parish bordering Evangeline, where my family was. There was a nearby high school where I could teach, and eventually did, so that was reasonable. The five mile gravel road that the land was on was another factor to consider. It hugged the bayou before crossing the prairie and following the oxbow swamp around three completely blind curves and a few more dog legs. There was litter in the bayou and dumped trash, tires, mattresses, and appliances all along the road, mostly at the curves. Sometimes a few bags of crawfish heads with the death smell all over the place. There's so much litter that sometimes, now, I forget to see it, and other times I am actually happy to see the orange jumpsuits of Saint Landry Parish inmates walking on the cleaning crew. 

There are quite a few young men who like to spin out and leave deep ruts after a rain. Other than fields and thick woods, there are a few dozen modest houses and trailer homes that dot the prairie, some line the road, and some are set back in coves. The houses are more affluent and concentrated as you approach Marks' Bridge, at the heart of the Prairie des Femmes. In the woods, many wooden structures are going to ruin or have already flattened.

In the fields there are a few horses and herds of black cows. There are violet crows that fly menacingly around, buzzards who claim the abundant carrion of the dirt road, falcons who navigate their wings through the woods and owls who live in the tall trees along the bayou.  

Since I came to the Prairie and stayed I have noticed that in the trees along the road there are dozens of bright red cardinals that swoop bravely across the path and back into the woods, and despite the starkness of the road on a winter's day, the neighbors passing in their familiar trucks will lift a finger or two off the steering wheel in greeting.