Matrilineage [umbilicus]
the first inheritance a puncture wound:
where you detach from your mother
an undug grave call it provenance
In one language named life source هوى
eve. the period preceding some say wife/mother of [ ]
but origin can’t be tethered to consequence
an oculus doomed to gape before a mirror
my abdomen rounded a line appeared
from navel to sex linea nigra
text appeared ا the first letter
abjad inferred, ا
mammalian I, matriline
I did not want this look how
it appeared I multiplied
from figment I bore
witness: your body
From THEOPHANIES (Alice James Books, 2024). Copyright © 2023 by Sarah Ghazal Ali. Used with the permission of the publisher. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on October 27, 2023, by the Academy of American Poets
“This is the first in a sequence of ‘Matrilineage’ poems, all preoccupied with the mother line. It began—as many believe we all began—with Eve. Eve, who has no mother but mothers; Eve, whose name heralds her fate. The poem found its form early on during my first pregnancy, when my voice and body felt least like they belonged wholly to me. Many women are speaking here, tugging the cord, and the way I chose to read this poem is not the only way but one of many.”
—Sarah Ghazal Ali
Sarah Ghazal Ali
