A Spry, Young Mother — Massachusetts Poetry Festival

A photograph of a sunny room with a dark wooden chair. On the wooden chair is a tan cushion and four organic shapes made of nylons. The largest nylon shape is covered with bits of alpaca hair and has a mouth-like hole with a chunky metal chain emerging from it. In the top third of the painting, a pale hand with turquoise nail polish holds a cast iron skillet. Hanging from the cast iron skillet are four organic nylon shapes. These shapes are suspended by fishing line and are in shades of pink, tan, and brown. — *A Spry, Young Mother* by Maeve Lally, 2020. Nylons, foam, alpaca hair, metal, fruit nets, textiles… Roughly 15×15 with additions

A Spry Young Mother

By Erin Moon White

See me: matrescent
Modus operandi
Hobbled & lumpen.

Milksour monster
Chained umbilically
To mouth & to chair.

My insides dangle
Like blood diamonds
Above the bassinet.

See motherhood: life
Lived with the skin
Peeled, lifted back.

About the Poet

Erin Moon White grew up in the suburbs of Detroit, and currently lives in Boston with her husband and son. She holds an MFA in poetry from Columbia University. Other work — including fiction and collage — has appeared in PANK, Blunderbuss Magazine, Mistress, Shampoo, Death Hums, The Oleander Review, and elsewhere.

About the Artist

Maeve Lally is a senior at Montserrat College of Art, concentrating in painting though mainly focusing on soft sculpture and textile arts. She focuses on concepts revolving around the body and how emotions and experiences can be represented as strange organic forms.