A Poem by Esther Sadoff

….

My mother cracks watermelon into halves

scoops out the center until its flesh pales to white. 

Later sips the cool liquid from the rind. 

She eats cherries by the handful, 

cups orange and clementine skins

in the shadow of the TV, splits pistachios

and scatters shells across the table.

She’s always in the yard, unclogging some obstruction. 

I show her videos of flooded backyards being drained, 

the water sputtering and descending with a jolt.

She fears those raucous waters, the rocking of a boat.

Panics as my father pulls in and out of the dock. 

She rushes home over the slippery path, 

watches for fear the boat has gone crooked again. 

She cracks open a watermelon for me 

as if I only came for its sweetness, the gem of its red heart.

….

This poem was originally published by Cathexis Poetry Northwest, and is included in the chapbook Some Wild Woman by Esther Sadoff (Finishing Line Press): available at https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/some-wild-woman-by-esther-sadoff/

Some Wild Woman is a series of portraits that capture the messy and delicious chaos of family life. The poems focus on the poet’s mother who is a veritable force of nature: a source of joy, of mystery, and of nourishment. We meet the mother in a kitchen brimming with fruit, a car fumbling around the roundabout, a piano lesson where she reigns supreme. Wherever this mother goes, she leaves a little bit of herself, transforming her world. Yet running through each poem is the question of the self. How to make it in this rough-and-tumble world? By attempting to make sense of her mother, the author seeks to make sense of herself. The mother of Some Wild Woman will make you want to (in the words of the author), “show up show up show up.”