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 » Marin Smith – Just One Last Question Before We Say Goodnight

Marin Smith – Just One Last Question Before We Say Goodnight

0
By Mom Egg Review on May 28, 2023 Poetry

Marin Smith

Just One Last Question Before We Say Goodnight

 

By the way, Mom, she says, where did life come from?

Well, I say, unsure where to start,
There are many cultures with many answers to that question.

Some people think, I say, there is a thing called god. I
stammer, feel nervous, lowercasing the g,
peeling out past the word.

Others think, I say—but I’m lost, try to start over,
I have no idea how to answer.

She turns my words over like a rock in her palm, and with
the swiftness of a scholar and some pity in her voice
says, but Mom, don’t you know that there was a big, big explosion
and then we evolved?

You’re right, I say, and I wonder if
this is what motherhood is:
a daughter asks you a question and answers it better than you do,
with just as much terror and mystery—
but without any shame.

 

Marin Smith writes, parents, bakes bread, and gardens in the Columbia River Gorge in Oregon. She holds an MA in English from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and has presented at AWP, the Northern California Writing Centers Association, and the American Literature Association. Her work can be found in Dead Flowers Poetry Rag, Considering Disability Journal, Elephant Journal, Thought Catalog, and forthcoming in Split Rock Review.

 

Back to “The Little Things”

Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email
Previous ArticleJennifer Hernandez – Chrysalis
Next Article Ashley Knowlton – Sprouting Specks

Comments are closed.

Recent VOX Posts
September 13, 2025

“We bring you here to see dead things–” A poetry folio of the supernatural in motherhood

September 13, 2025

Diannely Antigua – ORCHARD REVISITED

September 13, 2025

Erin Armstrong – THE WEIGHT OF BODIES

September 13, 2025

Sara Ries Dziekonski – INVISIBLE

September 13, 2025

Lindsay Kellar-Madsen – MILK & MARROW

September 13, 2025

Barbara O’Dair – MONSTER

September 13, 2025

Tzynya Pinchback – MENARCHE

September 13, 2025

Amanda Quaid – FARRUCA

September 13, 2025

Joani Reese – FEVER DREAM

September 13, 2025

Nancy Ring – HOW BRIGHTLY

September 13, 2025

Nida Sophasarun – SIRENS

September 13, 2025

Jacqueline West – WITH THE FIVE-YEAR-OLD AT THE BELL MUSEUM

August 29, 2025

MER Poem of the Month – September 2025

July 31, 2025

MER Poem of the Month – August 2025

July 1, 2025

MER Poem of the Month – July 2025

June 4, 2025

MER Poem of the Month – June 2025

May 1, 2025

MER Poem of the Month – May 2025

April 14, 2025

Something New – Haiku! by Sarah Mirabile-Blacker

April 1, 2025

MER Poem of the Month – April 2025

March 13, 2025

MOTHERING ALONE

March 13, 2025

Julia C. Alter – The Nursing Chair

March 13, 2025

Ana María Carbonell – Ledger & Vermouth

March 13, 2025

Savannah Cooper-Ramsey – By Four Months

March 13, 2025

Jill Crammond – When I Sell My Wedding Ring at the Pawn Shop

March 13, 2025

Kelsey Jordan – I Find a Blond Hair in His Laundry

Archives
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.