Author’s Note: Rehoming my dog Mello after having had her as best friend for three years is one of the most painful decisions I have ever made. A grief compounded by the fact that Mello, my dog, was also my elderly mother’s dog. My mother and I have had a complicated relationship, filled with lots of estrangement, but caring for Mello together allowed us to transcend this history and connect.
On the Day I Rehome Our Dog Mello – a prose poem
My mom tells me a story about how her older brother, Byung-ho, (dead now for a decade) had a friend who couldn’t keep his dog. The friend drove the dog to a province hundreds of miles away to live with a new family in a new home. Across a mountain range, far away from the sea. One year later the dog showed up at the friend’s home in the village near the sea, having traveled the great distance to get back to the friend, my mom says. We are holding hands on the couch. We have spent most of my life not touching. The Game Show Network is playing on cable. We are in America, 7000 miles from where my mother was born, and where she wishes to return (impossible) to die. Maybe, Mello will return to us, she says.
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Noel Sikorski (she/her/hers) is a biracial Korean American. She received her MFA from New York University. Her writing has been published in The American Poet, The Georgetown Review, The Bellevue Literary Review, Painted Bride Quarterly, Action, and Spectacle. She received a Work-Study Scholarship for the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference.
The Delmarva Review, in St. Michaels, MD, offers writers a desirable home in print (with a digital edition) for their most compelling new prose and poetry to present to discerning audiences everywhere. It exists at a time when many commercial print publications (and literary magazines) were closing their doors or reducing literary content. For each annual edition, the editors have read thousands of submissions to select the best of new poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. About half are from the Delmarva and Chesapeake region. As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, support comes from tax-deductible contributions and a grant from Talbot Arts with funds from the Maryland State Arts Council. Website: www.DelmarvaReview.org
