Poetry by Esther Sadoff
All morning, sweat springs from Arnold’s brow
as he awaits the beatdown at the end of the day:
a pummeling between him and a huge kid
and everyone knows who’s going to win.
I’ve been lowered a few rungs by self-deprecation.
Folded myself into impressive origami-smallness.
I’ve thrown in the towel, waved a white flag, and run
for the hills but in this episode of Hey Arnold!,
Arnold actually starts to hit himself in the school yard,
a dizzying kaleidoscope of faces spinning round,
but what stands out most are their egg-shaped
eyes vacant and hungry for action.
Arnold gives himself such an insane beating
that he scares the bully into submission.
I’d like to think of myself exactly like that:
two sides of the mirror fighting each other,
a reflection that won’t quit, myself standing over
(or under) my other self and declaring it some kind of win.
Esther Sadoff is a teacher and writer from Columbus, Ohio. Her poems have been featured or are forthcoming in Little Patuxent Review, Jet Fuel Review, Cathexis Poetry Northwest, Pidgeonholes, Santa Clara Review, South Florida Poetry Journal, among others.
