But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt. Genesis 19:26
Scrolling social media
I see the headline --
Salted Watermelon: 
the “New” Viral Trend.
I roll my eyes, 
toss thoughts 
like spilled salt…
back to the ice-cold 
flesh of my childhood,
to the grosgrain-ribboned rounds,
chilled with river rock, 
freshly fished from
glittering undercurrents
and displayed, 
gravid & sweating, 
on weathered pine planks
bleached as the afternoon sun.
                               Thwump
goes the blade, sharp
and curved for cleaving,
heavy in my father’s right hand,
parting the Red Sea and
spilling juice and seeds 
in abundance, driving 
wedges wide and deep
as the smiles on our faces,
the shade in Mother’s gazes
as she administers
the covenant of salt,
eyes glittering 
with undercurrents,
hands chapped as weathered planks 
                               when
she upends the yellow-skirted,
umbrella-girded maiden
trapped in her canister,
salt like tears raining down,
before she turns, before she 
leaves him, this
bold salty beacon,
guiding us beyond silence
and taut apron strings.


              By Heather Peters Candela