"Night Woman" - Wu

Hi, Allison Wu here. “Night Woman” reads as a dreamy love note from mother to son. The ebb and flow of short dialogue between mother and son acts as the melody in this love note – the simple call and response of “mother” then “darling” is hummed throughout the piece via the mother’s descriptions of her life in the night. We can feel the mother’s desperation for her son to stay with her forever unlike her nightly men who arrive and escape quietly each working day. The mother illustrates evening love for her son whom rests and sleeps under the spell of her womanly charm. As the mother watches her son, she sees flickers of his agelessness in his boyhood – his moans from dreaming of sugar candy from his mother’s purse sound like his future cries from the sweetness of making love. Similarly, his small body grows large in the shadows causing him to have a pair of large arms which his mother is embraced by every night from a new man. The son’s habits while sleeping imprint upon the mother as she admires her son’s little ways hoping that they never leave like her clients do. As the story ends, we see the mother’s endless dedication to her son by sharing her body with many, so that she can share life with just one.