Close Menu
  • Home
    • About
    • Masthead
    • Links
  • MER Journal
    • Latest Issue
    • Back Issues
    • Subscribe to MER!
  • MER ONLINE
    • MER Quarterly
    • MER Literary Folios
    • Poetry
    • Fiction
    • Creative Prose
    • Essay
    • Craft
    • Interviews
    • Book Reviews
      • Bookshelf
    • Authors’ Notes
    • Art Gallery
      • Special – Hybrids
  • News & Events
    • News
    • Poem of the Month
    • Events
      • MER 18 Virtual Reading – Voices From HOME
    • Currents
      • Announcements
      • Highlights
  • Shop
    • All Issues
    • One Year Subscription
    • Two Year Subscription
  • Submit
Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
MER – Mom Egg Review
Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram YouTube Tumblr Threads
  • Home
    • About
    • Masthead
    • Links
  • MER Journal
    • Latest Issue
    • Back Issues
    • Subscribe to MER!
  • MER ONLINE
    • MER Quarterly
    • MER Literary Folios
    • Poetry
    • Fiction
    • Creative Prose
    • Essay
    • Craft
    • Interviews
    • Book Reviews
      • Bookshelf
    • Authors’ Notes
    • Art Gallery
      • Special – Hybrids
  • News & Events
    • News
    • Poem of the Month
    • Events
      • MER 18 Virtual Reading – Voices From HOME
    • Currents
      • Announcements
      • Highlights
  • Shop
    • All Issues
    • One Year Subscription
    • Two Year Subscription
  • Submit
NEWSLETTER
MER – Mom Egg Review
You are at:Home » Poem of the Month – October 2022

Poem of the Month – October 2022

0
By Mom Egg Review on September 28, 2022 News, Poem of the Month, Poetry

RaShell R. Smith-Spears

A Writer Speaks of Lineage

 

My foremothers were magic.
Their nimble fingers squeezed syntax into cauldrons of rhythm
and rolled juju across pages that glared with our erasure;
they poured images into white spaces
defined by the narrowed lines of Black people’s lives.
They touched history with metaphor, making charms to ward off lies. As I wait before the page, inky wand in hand, I know
my foremothers were magic.

My foremothers were full of wonder.
I speak their names as incantations against the spell of invisibility: Margaret. Toni. Gloria. Bebe. Leslie. Octavia.*
They have many clean words to say and unclean ones, too, because they were conjure women unafraid
to work the root of racial weeds.
My foremothers were magic.

Why am I not as they?

*Margaret Walker (1915-1998), Toni Morrison (1931-2019), Gloria Naylor (1950- 2016), Bebe Moore Campbell (1950-2006), Leslie Esdaile Banks (1959-2011), Octavia Butler (1947-2006).

Poem originally published in MER vol. 20, “Mother Figures”

 


RaShell R. Smith-Spears is an associate professor of English at Jackson State University in Jackson, MS, where she teaches creative writing and literature. She has published poetry and short fiction in several journals and anthologies including Gumbo Magazine, Sycorax’s Daughters, Mississippi Noir, Dying Dahlia Review, and Black Magnolias Literary Journal.


 

 

Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email
Previous ArticleSlowly/Suddenly by Allison Blevins
Next Article MER vol. 20 – 2022

Comments are closed.

Poem/Story of the Month
May 1, 2025

MER Poem of the Month – May 2025

April 1, 2025

MER Poem of the Month – April 2025

February 28, 2025

Poem of the Month – March 2025

January 30, 2025

Poem of the Month – February 2025

January 2, 2025

Poem of the Month – January 2025

November 30, 2024

Poem of the Month – December 2024

Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram YouTube Tumblr Threads
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Submit
  • Contact
MER - Mom Egg Review
PO Box 9037, Bardonia, NY 10954
Contact [email protected]

Copyright © 2025 MER and Mom Egg Review

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.