I believe in the Exhausted
Mothers & Frightened Children²
Women make each other’s Souls –
Learning how to make Children’s Souls³
At the Center of the Earth there is a Mother⁴
See the Entire Universe rested at my Mother’s Feet⁵
Motherhood was Invented by someone who had to
Have a Word for it because the ones that have the
Children Don’t Care if there’s a word for it or not⁶
She’s a Prophet disguised as a Young Mother⁷
Veteran of the Birth of her own Children⁸
What’s the Body of your Mother?
Silver Moonlight Everywhere⁹
Secure me in the Presence of
Motherly Loving Kindness¹⁰
¹ William Blake, To Tirzah
² Dorothy Allison, This Is Our World
³ Ursula K. Le Guin, Solitude
⁴ Susan Griffin, Our Mother
⁵ Rupi Kaur, When My Mother Was Pregnant
⁶ William Faulkner, As I Lay Dying
⁷ Joy Harjo, Insomnia and the Seven Steps to Grace
⁸ Laura Hershey, Petrona
⁹ Langston Hughes, Mulatto
¹⁰ Padmasambhava tr. Gyurme Dorje, The Tibetan Book of the Dead