Birth Stone
The older women wise and tell Anna first time baby mother, “hold a stone upon your head and follow a straight line go home.” For like how Anna was working in the field, grassweeder, right up till … Continued
Poems for Mothers
The Cataracts of my Grandmother
Somewhere beyond this kitchen and her old eyes there lies, I think there lies a country blindly hinted of. with wise all-seeing hands she grasps the damp, the give of dough; the dint of knife that flays the noodles fine; … Continued
A Mother
Translated from Turkish by Nermin Menemencioğlu The woman must have been out washing A bundle on her arm, her rough hands chapped with soda Like all Jewish women of her age She wore a faded black velvet coat … Continued
Bodacious
FOR ARCHIBALD J. MOTLEY’S BROWN GIRL She’d walk up and take the sandwich from your hand to feed her kids She’d wear red ’round her rear on Sunday to Sunday service Her lips were painted red Her nails … Continued
Failed Essay on Shapes
Mother tells Girl, who chews the word like bubble gum. Or, newly toothed, Girl really chews an elephant’s helping of gum. More interested in blowing a bubble than in the names of what she can … Continued
Forgot About His Mother
Translated from Polish by Piotr Florczyk She was dying in the basement, on sacks of coal, crying for water, crying for her son, no one was there. The son forgot about his mother, the son was cleaning … Continued
Do Boys Turn into Butterflies
You’ll always be a thing of sun-dazzle and sweetness soft as fingertips, suckling nectar and tuned to bliss— No butterfly will be gale-torn, wasp-stabbed, clawed or pinned—not while I inhale your hair, listening What do … Continued
The Drawer Marked Meats
A bedtime story about Bluebeard all the wives on meat hooks then wake up and the house is dark. Fear is a gift from mother— the way she grabbed our collar bones, said: get inside. We had the … Continued