Questions Resulting from an Exchange of the Hungry Caterpillar by Sara Mann

Why do I have four words for your maduro, but only one for your four slices? I give you mature for a child, seasoned for a professional, aged for a cheese, ripe for a fruit—and you give me trozo for a part of a whole, but rebanada if it’s thin, rodaja if it’s round, and tajada when it’s cut up-to-down. Is it because I know that everyone gets old alone? Or because you know there is only one way to hold it all together even though there are so many ways to tear it apart?

Sara Mann graduated from Brown University with a BA (which they call an AB) in Nonfiction Writing and a Master of Arts in Teaching. She teaches literature and creative writing to high schoolers in Massachusetts.