An Imperfect Mother by Joan Leotta One of my early memories is marveling over a statue of Mary, the Mother of Jesus in the corner of my first-grade classroom. The nuns said Mary was the perfect Mother. I learned…
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Catherine Lu Mama Bird Catherine Lu is an Emmy-nominated arts and culture producer in Houston. She covers the local arts scene and produces the National Poetry Month…
Point-Counterpoint by Linda Murphy Marshall Flip sides of the same coin. Yin and yang. Point, counterpoint. Sisters. Besides their diminutive frames, their oversized intellects, having mothered four children each, they had little in common. Picture my mother. Movie star…
May Day by Heather Haldeman “Hurray! Hurray! It’s the 1st of May. Outdoor sex starts today!” “Mom!” “I know,” she laughed. “You wanted the mother with the bun in the back, the Peter Pan collar and the cross around…
Role Models? In this folio, our third in our series on “Mother Figures,” poets and prose writers grapple with different aspects of the role of “Mother.” They recall the parenting they received and investigate its nexus with the…
Mother Figures – Storied Mothers In this, our second* “Mother Figures” folio, we feature “Storied Mothers.” Once upon a time, traditional stories, myths, and fairy tales were dangerous places for mothers. Mothers were either sainted, but doomed, or evil incarnations,…
Carol Alexander O Wicked Stepmother She wasn’t even mine, I had to borrow her. In her likeness, we wore cheap brass chains and scarlet mouths honied with plausible lies. That woman spent her days letting the garden rot the…
Richelle Buccilli Cinderella Thinks About Motherhood after Lana Hechtman Ayers Praise the birds who still come to sing here. Praise the sunlight making dust appear biblical, possible spinning in its own cloud of light like a child imagining freedom.…
Kristin Indorato Mouths here we are at the end of the story and in this adaptation, the wicked stepmother is simply gone when the children return, having foiled the witch with a chicken bone and pushed her into the…
Abriana Jetté Persephone Responds Fast ships slow snakes at the bottom of the sea. Every earth born creature stood still the day he came for me. The downward dive compels a Vesuvian festoon a vertiginous release that smells like…