I’ve been reading about motherhood
a little late, perhaps, the good-enough mother,
attachment theory, was I proximal
or distal. If all the parts that were you
are now me, can I be called Mother?
What I think about now is not whether
a reconditioned ship can still be
called Argo, but how to consider a ship
built from its discarded woodwork.
Am I discarded? The wreckage
of my body holds my grandson to my chest
to feel his quick breathing (proximal).
And then I leave, which is not distal
only distant. I land 2am local time, home
to the stray cats, the humidity,
a lark singing-in the moon-bright flowers
in love with the illusion of light.
‘Frangipani’ appears in Angelina D’Roza‘s second full-length collection The Blue Hour. A beautifully produced hardback, it is published by Longbarrow Press on 9 November 2023; you can order the book securely by clicking on the relevant PayPal button below.
The Blue Hour: £13
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More than 60 previous Featured Poems can be accessed via this index (many of these pages also contain audio recordings and short films).
Longbarrow Press 