(with Ella, 8, posted 12/16)
Ella tells me Alexander the Great put honey and nectar in his snow.
Can we do that, Mama?
Mama, can we put honey and nectar in our snow tonight?
If it snows we can feed the whole family!
What color are the trees?
Hmm that’s a question for your dad.
What sound do the trees make?
That’s a question for your grandpa.
How will we know it’s snowing?
From the TV tellers, silly.
You silly.
That’s something to say to your sister not mommy O.
Where did the birds go?
Hmm how should I say this..? I think- That’s a question for your cousin everyone knows she’s a bird ketcher.
What kinds of birds does she catch?
Rare ones. So do you think you can start getting in to birds and catch rare ones just like your cousin so you can get mommy some dinner tonight!
I thought we are gonna eat snow and nectar tonight?
In your dreams if it snows.
“Mama’s Snowstorm” is a poem from the collection Everything is Temporary by Artist-in-Residence, Nicole Callihan.
On September 29, 2020, Nicole Callihan was diagnosed with breast cancer. A double mastectomy, a lymph node dissection, radiation, and hormone therapy followed. All the while, she committed to her everyday practice of making art. Many of the recordings were originally posted to the weekly open-mic series, Wednesday Night Poetry; the images that accompany the poems were selected from her Instagram collection @thebluepitcher. These are poems and notes she took in the months that followed her diagnosis.
See Nicole Callihan read her work below:
