after Mama by Jessica Frances Grégoire Lancaster (2023)

I’m trying to figure out who
or what teaches us about love.

Does it mirror the lessons
we learn about hands and fire?
Or is it a memory of a Mama
holding you like undersea cables
for a family picture?

Some would trace it back to the hip
opening and closing like a tulip
on the right night
with the right man
or man of the moment.

And yes – no daughter or son wants
to think about creation –
the messy work of moans
and moonlight
all the worlds held in a Mama’s body.

In that dominion of softness,
we learned the language of skin
and every syllable of our names
And yes, that too was a miracle.

Some things root easier –
the memory of a dipped
fork of spaghetti
shoulders moving to Motown’s
oh yes, wait a minute Mr. Postman.

Or the procession of matching
blue barrettes, socks, and rubbed
cocoa butter on Sunday knees.

Passed down from a Mama’s mama
our face uses 43 muscles to smile.
We learn this early and
the family mirror doesn’t lie.

Cynthia Manick is the author of No Sweet Without Brine (Amistad-HarperCollins, 2023), which received 5 stars from Roxane Gay, was named among the “Best Poetry of the Last Year” by Ms. Magazine, and was selected as a New York Public Library Best Book of 2023. She is the author of Brown Girl Polaris (a Belladonna chaplet), editor of The Future of Black: Afrofuturism, Black Comics, and Superhero Poetry; and winner of the Lascaux Prize in Collected Poetry for her first collection Blue Hallelujahs. Manick has received fellowships from Cave Canem, Hedgebrook, MacDowell, Yaddo, and Château de la Napoule among other foundations. For 10 years she curated Soul Sister Revue, a quarterly reading series that featured emerging poets, poet laureates, and Pulitzer Prize winners. Her poem “Things I Carry into the World” was made into a film by Motionpoems and has debuted on Tidal for National Poetry Month. Her work has recently featured in VOICES, an audio play and sisterscape by Aja Monet and Eve Ensler’s V-Day. A storyteller and performer at literary festivals, libraries, and museums, Manick’s work can be found in the Academy of American Poets Poem-A-Day Series, Brooklyn Rail, The Rumpus and other outlets. She lives in New York, but travels widely for poetry.

https://www.cynthiamanick.com/
https://www.instagram.com/brooklyncynthia/