Mamá, by Alarie Tennille

Baby Nursing, Mexico City, by Tina Modotti (b. USA), 1926.

Mamá

is your first language.
What is country to you?
Everything  is Mamá.

Mamá is brave to leave
Méjico, to taste a sharp language
on her tongue. For you, English
will be as easy as growing.

Sleep, Bebita, while Mamá dreams.

Alarie Tennille

This poem was written as part of the 20 Poem Challenge.
​
Alarie Tennille was born and raised in Portsmouth, Virginia, and graduated from the University of Virginia in the first class admitting women. She became fascinated by fine art at an early age, even though she had to go to the World Book Encyclopedia to find it. Today she visits museums everywhere she travels and spends time at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri, where her husband is a volunteer guide. Alarie’s poetry book, Running Counterclockwise, contains many ekphrastic poems. Please visit her at alariepoet.com.