How to Eat a Mango at the End of the World

A poem and a prompt about savoring what's in front of you now

Just a reminder: Held: Navigating the Journey into Motherhood is now open for registration. This six-week series for mothers in the midst of becoming starts October 10th, is all online, and has a new Bring-a-Friend pricing tier. I’m so excited to see this cohort come together. Thanks for sharing!

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My friends, you’re supposed to get a long-form piece today, but you’re getting a poem instead. This is a newsletter about embracing our aliveness—our humanness—and I will always do my best to let my humanness lead the way. This week, that meant diving deep on my memoir and offering my Substack readers a poem. Here it is:

Photo by Ardi Evans on Unsplash

How to Eat a Mango at the End of the World

You don’t have to worry if she’s ripe
because by this time, we’re all primed
to fall

Carve into her mottled skin
peeling away the last vestiges
of pretense

Scoop her flesh–glistening, the color
of marigolds–into you
with a hunger

that probably won’t die when you do

If you pause to wonder if you should
share, you might go to Heaven
unless

Heaven was that last bite

Her pit is like a slippery newborn
you’d lick clean with your rough
mama tongue

if only you could just hold on

I know that Slow Eating is a whole movement—probably one that I should subscribe to since I always eat like it’s the last time I’ll see food—but let’s just try a micro experiment for now.

1. Do this when you’re not in a hurry. If it feels like that’s never the case, just try to isolate the action instead of multi-tasking.

2. Pick a food or beverage. It can be something familiar or new, simple or complex, especially tasty or just intriguing.

3. From preparation to clean-up, pay attention to the process of consuming this food or drink. Notice pace, temperature, tools, techniques. Notice color, texture, smell, taste, mouthfeel, sounds. Notice what it’s like to eat or drink or prepare it alone versus with someone else. Notice if it stirs up memories or connections to other issues or experiences.

4. Maybe you write about the process, or record a voice note. Maybe you just internalize what it felt like and come back to it next time you enjoy that food.

With light, life, and love,

Devon