Esther Sadoff
Once my teacher told me
that if you are still enough,
you can be confused with anything.
You can become invisible.
Rabbits will mistake you for earth.
You will be invisible to birds and bees.
It took me almost forty years to notice
the impossible delicacy of a bird
looking not past me but through me,
a bird with its mouth open so slightly
it looked like it was holding the light.
Imitation
We humans took skyscrapers from nature,
the way the plants build their own architecture.
Notice the smallest weed in its own dimension
and watch how it grows into something enormous.
The shiny metal of the car is like the carapace
of a beetle. Now, we try to give muscle and sinew
to metal but we will never be like the mountain.
Pollinators
I used to think only bees were pollinators,
but now I know that isn’t true.
Moths, hornets, and wasps also
transfer pollen from flower to flower—
small city of magenta, deep purple, blushing pink.
Even flies can pollinate,
the second most important pollinator,
but we are only interested in firsts.
There is little we actually want to know.
Esther Sadoff is a teacher and writer from Columbus, Ohio. She is the author of four chapbooks:Some Wild Woman(Finishing Line Press), Serendipity in France (Finishing Line Press), Dear Silence (Kelsay Books), and If I Hold my Breath (Bottlecap Press). She was nominated for a Pushcart Prize by Hole in the Head Review, and she is the winner of the Women of Ohio 2025 Poetry Award.
Banner Art:
Arthur Dove, From a Wasp, c. 1914, The Art Institute of Chicago
