Reflections of a Feral Mother, by Cynthia Robinson Young

Poetry, chapbook, 32 pages, from Bottlecap Features.

Reflections of a Feral Mother is a collection of poems that begs the answer to the question, how does a Black mother keep her children safe? It addresses the innate desire of Black mothers to encircle and protect their children.

Beginning with the kidnapping of their children during the African Diaspora, this lack of agency continued through their offspring being separated from them and sold into slavery on other plantations. The condoning through the movie, Birth of a Nation, the Ku Klux Klan violence of Jim Crow era which included chain gangs and lynchings, were all created to keep Black communities in a bondage of fear. Later, mass incarcerations continue to destroy the Black community.

This fear has not abated, as we release our sons (and daughters), our children and grandchildren into a racialized society, where the simple acts of driving or going on a recreational run might endanger their lives. When does it end? How does it end? Can it ever end? These are the reflections of a feral mother.

Cynthia Robinson Young is a native of Newark, New Jersey, but currently lives in Chattanooga, Tennessee. She is the author of the chapbook, Migration, for which she was named Finalist the 2019 Georgia Author of the Year Award. Her work has appeared in journals and magazines, including the Cutleaf Journal, Grist, The Ekphrastic Review, and The Writer's Chronicle. She is the mother of eight children and grandmother to 18, all of whom live within 30 minutes of her and her husband.