Daughter Hymn

Artist:  Augustus John 
b. January 4, 1878, Tenby, Pembrokeshire, Wales; d. October 31, 1961, Fordingbridge, Hampshire, England
Title:  Two Jamaican Girls
Date: 1937
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Mother, I keep praying the parts of you
out of me   & yet you keep returning,
 
always wearing a second hand dress
always fraught and wayward
always sunbathing in grief;
 
refusing to love any one island           or man.
 
& you know how hard I’ve tried to not disappoint you
            but how I’ve innately become a wound on the flesh   salted,
 
& how you have carried me like a knife on the tongue          twisting
 
& how each time I tried to say goodbye    it was your maternal glory
            that choked me  & I couldn’t let go,
 
just like you couldn’t bear to love the one who reminded you                      of yourself,
 
& how each time you tried   you recited prayers of your own:
 
 Dear Lord,  you have buried a gun in my womb     please    don’t shoot

"Daughter Hymn"  has been published by America Magazine September,  2020