Searching for the Duck Hole

This essay explores the metaphor of a spillway in Dallas, Texas’s Turtle Creek (a branch of the Trinity River) to illuminate the writer’s obsession with loss and longing. The writer, now in middle-age, ended her relationship with her mother nearly thirty years ago. Her mother now attempts to connect with her through social media. The writer considers both the reasons for the estrangement and the primal love she still has for her mother.