Matryoshka Song
If you missed the introduction to “Matryoshka Song,” you can find it here.
I put an awl case
on my belt
around my waste, just like the placard said
I am industrious mother
I sport the awl, like the picture book shows
I am an industry mother
The little pouch
is for starting fires
I am hospitable mother
I carry the fire
in my mouth, the way the bible teaches
I am a hospital mother
I wear a knife
to feed the people
I too am generous mother
I feed the people
in their belly
with my knife
They made me a general mother
Abigail Chabitnoy is the author of In the Current Where Drowning Is Beautiful (forthcoming, Wesleyan 2022); How to Dress a Fish, shortlisted for the 2020 International Griffin Prize for Poetry and winner of the 2020 Colorado Book Award; and the linocut illustrated chapbook Converging Lines of Light. She currently teaches at the Institute of American Indian Arts low-residency MFA program and is an assistant professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Chabitnoy is a member of the Tangirnaq Native Village in Kodiak, Alaska. She has an MFA in poetry and a B.A. in English and anthropology.
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You may republish this article, either online and/or in print, under the Creative Commons CC BY-ND 4.0 license. We ask that you follow these simple guidelines to comply with the requirements of the license.
In short, you may not make edits beyond minor stylistic changes, and you must credit the author and note that the article was originally published on SAPIENS.
Accompanying photos are not included in any republishing agreement; requests to republish photos must be made directly to the copyright holder.