ESTHER ALTSHUL HELFGOTT

---

DRIVING HOME FROM MOTHER’S HOUSE


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.


© 1995, Esther Altshul Helfgott


Esther Altshul Helfgott’s "Driving Home From Mother’s House" was first published in The Psychoanalytic Psycho Therapy Review Vol. 4, #3, 1993. Other poems and her Jewish Feminism writings have appeared in more than two dozen other periodicals including Genesis 2, Midway Review, and Poetry Seattle. Esther has a Ph D in History and is the founder/coordinator of the "It’s About Time Writers Reading Series" in which Seattle-area writers (of all levels) share their work.