The Moya View

Tag: motherhood

  • Arguing with the Dead

    Arguing with the Dead

    Arguing With the DeadBegin by calling her by name,not the one etched on the granite monument in front of you,not the one printed on the birth certificate—that temporary name another motherwas forced to dream upin the haze of post-labor fade,in the ecstasy of seeing youfor the first time—something that grew for nine monthsinside this other,and…

  • Brief Encounter on Aisle Five

    Brief Encounter on Aisle Five

    Brief Encounter on Aisle FiveIt is this way:She sees him first—aisle five, cereals— where the honeyed light fall softly on him— and her. The way he cradles Cheerioson the cart’s edge—firm in his handsso if they slip, they fallinto the safety of the cart,into the touch of his little girl-—lets her knowhe once belonged to…

  • Prayers Between Us

    Prayers Between Us

    I do my laundryin the rhythm of my mother’s prayers—each crease a rosary,folding divineto divine.I count the timesher perils met mine—with hands that trembledat my fever,hands burntin a kitchenunseen,List the register of her and mine shared frailties:the way we flinched at sudden joy, unsure it would stay,All the letters written to my heart—the notes she…

  • Birth/Rebirth:  The Joys and Horrors of  Co-Parenting a Reanimated Child

    Birth/Rebirth:  The Joys and Horrors of  Co-Parenting a Reanimated Child

    MOVIE INFO: Rose (Marin Ireland) is a pathologist who prefers working with corpses over social interaction. She also has an obsession — the reanimation of the dead. Celie (Judy Reyes) is a maternity nurse who has built her life around her bouncy, chatterbox six-year-old daughter, Lila (A.J. Lister). When one tragic night, Lila suddenly falls…

  • The Death Wife’s Tale

    The Death Wife’s Tale

    After nine months,three hours of laborand a mile of wanderingTahlequah gave birth in the middle of a salted world.For half an hour,Tahlequah could look into her child’s eyes.For thirty minutes the child, until it became silent, was a sacrament to love.In the inexplicable beauty of her death Tahlequahdecided to carry her.She remembered how there was…

  • Earth Mama: Feeling the Pain of  Child Separation

    Earth Mama: Feeling the Pain of Child Separation

    Premise via Wikipedia A pregnant single mother, with two children in foster care, embraces her Bay Area community as she fights to reclaim her family. Review: Earth Mama is a drama about Motherhood:  wanting children, having children, fighting to keep them- and if you are black, poor, make occasional poor decisions, losing them to the…

  • The Lightening

    The Lightening

    It’s hardly remembered, this first lightening of a child—snip by snip each curl floating to the floor,causing an impatient rising from the high chairThe child wants wings. He’s evaporating in the air.Yet, the mother holds him down, cutting a heavy linkin the nape of his neck to tether him to her, the earth. “Hold my…