When I eat crab, slide the rosyrubbery claw across my tongueI think of my mother. She'd drive downto the edge of the Bay, tiny woman in ahuge car, she'd ask the crab-man to crack it for her. She'd stand and wait as thepliers broke those chalky homes, wild-red and knobby, those cartilage wrists, the thin orange roof of the back.I'd come home, and find her at the table crisply unhousing the parts, laying the fierce shell on one side, the soft body on the other. She gave us lots, because we loved it so much, so there was always enough, a mound of crab like across between breast-milk and meat. The backeven had the shape of a perfectruined breast, upright flakes white as the flesh of a chrysanthemum, but the best part was the claw, she'd slide it out so slowly the tip was unbroken,scarlet bulb of the feeler—it was such a kick to easily eat that weapon,wreck its delicate hooked pulp between palate and tongue. She loved to feed us and all she gave us was fresh, she was willing to grasp shell, membrane, stem, to go close to dirt and salt to feed us,the way she had gone near our father himselfto give us life. I look back andsee us dripping at the table, feeding, herrow of pink eaters, the platter of flawless limp claws, I look back further andsee her in the kitchen, shelling flesh, hersmall hands curled—she is like a fish-hawk, wild, tearing the meatdeftly, living out her life of fear and desire.
Anonymous submission. "Sharon Olds "
To reflect back, Sharon Olds Talks about herself in her youth going with her mother to get crab. To me her mother sounds small yet, a great provider. She talks about what the crab claw looked like to her, flawless and all. I believe she was compairing the claw to her mother. At the end she says " She is like a fishhawk, wild, tearing the meatdeftly, living out her life of fear and desire. I really like the way Sharon compaired her mother to something as interesting and random as a crab claw. The voice was pretty much delightful in remembering her past. The way she talked about eating the crab pulled me twards this revolation. Also the way she talks about her mother sounds like she was a great provider."She loved to feed us and all she gave us was fresh, she was willing to grasp shell, membrane, stem, to close to dirt and salt to feed us,"
