Sleep When the Baby Sleeps and Other Nonsensical Writing Advice by Pichchenda Bao A renowned poet once gently suggested to me that I would never find the perfect conditions to write so I shouldn’t let that hold me back.…
Browsing: Prose
In the Beginning by Z.M. Spalter Sleep when the baby sleeps, lay him on his back, no, lay her on her belly, but only if you are in the same room. Read books about sleep, as if you haven’t…
Sailing With Lucille by J.E. Sills ++++++”may the tide ++++++that is entering even now ++++++the lip of our understanding ++++++carry you out ++++++beyond the face of fear” ++++++Blessing the Boats ++++++– Lucille Clifton (1937-2010) This poem you learn has…
Good Girl by Gail Upchurch Sweet messages written on the bottoms of my brown paper bag lunches. Crocheted, granny square blankets. A shared strawberry malt at Woolworth’s. In the eighteen years that I’ve been a mother, I have consciously…
Schrödinger’s Mother by Shinelle L. Espaillat “You’re always tired.” They are almost pouting when they say this. You have heard this phrase from four different people this week. Your tiredness would likely baffle your single-mother mother and her single-mother…
Motherconversating by Denise Lewis Patrick Osmosis… I remember being buttoned into a sleeveless, white-dotted Swiss dress. My mother had sewn it, as she did most of my clothes. She was crying, heavily pregnant with my sister. We were minutes…
Therese Gleason Some Defining Moments in Several Instances of Conception, Gestation and Birth: A (Personal) History To conceive (verb) 1. become pregnant with (a child) The first time I got pregnant on the first try. It was almost mystical;…
Heather Haldeman Pick up the Phone! “There you are!” Mom would say, taking a slurp of her instant coffee. It would be 8:00 am, the usual time for her morning call. I’d picture her in bed, the long powder…
This year, MER is examining the ins and outs of mothers with families, both online and in our forthcoming print issues. Often mothers are the nuclei of families—of the legacies, obligations, and stories that orbit around us. Family of heritage,…
Bethany Bruno Love, Without the Ashes I come from a long line of women who held their pain quietly, who carried too much and asked for too little. Irish women. Women with too many kids, too little money, too much…