My mother on vacation
calls me more than you'd expect.
She makes a concession.
Decides to sit on a bench to watch the waves roll in.
Knowing her, she does this for my father
who loves, more than anything,
the wake of breaking waves,
the curve of the coast tapering towards the horizon.
At dinner in the dim-lit restaurant,
my mother carves the meat from the bone
without realizing she’s kept nothing but fat.
That night when she starts feeling sick,
I tell my mother to Pay attention!
I say it over and over until I feel guilty.
I keep saying Pay attention, pay attention
though if she did, she wouldn't be my mother.
Esther Sadoff is a teacher and writer from Columbus, Ohio. Her poems have been recently featured in Cathexis Poetry Northwest, South Florida Poetry Journal, Death Rattle Oroboro, Sierra Nevada Review, and Up the Staircase Quarterly. Her first two chapbooks, Some Wild Woman and Serendipity in France, are forthcoming from Finishing Line Press.