As it's Mother's Day on Sunday, this week's Friday Poem is 'Plasticine Love Hearts' by Janette Ayachi from the anthology Writing Motherhood.

Writing Motherhood Carolyn Jess-Cooke

Through a unique combination of interviews, poems, and essays, Writing Motherhood, edited by Carolyn Jess-Cooke, interrogates contemporary representations of motherhood in media and literature. It asks why so many novels dealing with serious women's issues are packaged in pink covers with wellies and tea cups, and demonstrates how the exquisite moments of motherhood often enrich artistic practice rather than hinder it. Writing Motherhood is a vital exploration of the complexities of contemporary sexual politics, publishing, artistic creation, and 21st Century parenting.

Janette Ayachi PLASTICINE LOVE HEARTS You curved into me like a child that has never learnt to walk, a scuttle into my chest as I folded over you like a Russian doll. The first day I left you there I came back to find you crying nestled on the nursery teacher's lap like a newborn regressing, an upside down egg chart. You were late for their world as I practised detachment from tiny chairs and tiny children asked me to zip-up jackets tie laces, tell stories whilst you learnt the letters in your name made plasticine love-hearts became the keeper of the chicken coup sifting your fur-less hands over its feathers feeding it corn and water with curious precision. Today I am not there watching you and the time ticks slowly, my heart now scuttles in my chest as I align trust and bravery from its layers like a Russian doll internally displaced into individual shapes, regiment in its own body-hollow echo waiting for the bell to siren its puzzle-march to complete single form. We step back into each other the same way people jump onto moving trains, a leap toward shelter, your nails darkened by the hearts you carved and cloned for me in my absence.

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