we are womxn Stella Thé
Artist Statement: These are poems about the women in my life, the first being my birth mother, the second being my mother, and the last being my grandmother. The collection is meant to follow the events of a single year starting with my birthday April 19th and ending with the day my grandmother died and showing the life cycle of a single individual through the stories of many. 10.1 floating 4.19 – questions for my mommy Dear mommy--
who are you? what is your name? who is my father? who was your mother? are you still alive?
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what are you? what do you do? do you work? are you rich? or are you poor?
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where are you? where do i come from? how did i get to the steps of the orphanage? did you leave me in the night? did you leave me to die?
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why did you give me away? did i cry too loud? was i too ugly? did i waste 9 months of your life did you want a boy?
dear mommy-please write back to me. sincerely, your child
the wooden frame sighs as the frail woman lowers herself into the chair legs tremble although she does not weigh much her heavy soul sinks into the floor taking the last glimpse of her down with it i can see her once beautiful face wrinkle with age and worry and give itself to the sickness [she claims] nothing is changing [she claims] there is hope but i’m just not sure anymore i want to believe her but i can feel something has changed this time it’s different she knows i know but there is still a struggle and i can see a head bobbing between the floorboards her head slips under slipping down towards something ~unfamiliar~ i too start to lose my footing but i must worry about her keeping her head afloat
American Literary Magazine | 68
