Driving Home From Mother’s House: A Poem

Poetry / By / / 1 minute of reading

As I drove through the bower
of old oak trees
scanning 68th and 20th avenues northeast
I was scared by the moon.
It was so low in the sky that night
I thought it would smack me in the face.
I tried to turn the wipers on,
but strands of hair white as paste
covered the window like thick rain.
A woman's mouth stretched open
in a silent scream. Bent fingers clawed
until they reached my chest.
Some nights I lose my way home.

About The Author

Esther Altshul Helfgott is a Seattle writer & teacher. She edits The Psychoanalytic Experience: Analysands Speak, an on-line anthology of voices written from the client's perspective. She holds a Ph.D. in history from the University of Washington, where she wrote a thesis on the politics and poetry of Holocaust poet Irena Klepfisz. Esther's work has appeared in numerous in-print & on-line journals. She is the author of The Homeless One: A Poem in Many Voices (KotaPress, 1999) a play about homelessness & schizophrenia. She invites you to peruse the following websites: http://www.itsaboutimewriters.homestead.com http://poetrydialogue.homestead.com/Index.html http://www.itsaboutimewriters.homestead.com/Sept112001coverpge.html
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