Ode to My Black Child, by Cassie Holguin-Pettinato

Poetry, chapbook, 24 pages, illustrated, from Bottlecap Features.

"Ode To My Black Child is an illustrated poem that tells a story of my love as a mother long before motherhood. Is it possible that I could know my child before she was born, like in a dream? “Rich melanin pigments from the birthplace of mankind.” Could it be that birth is a form of remembering a distant past? And what happens when the dream shatters because of trauma, postpartum depression, and anxiety? It is the search to remember what I always knew."

—Cassie Holguin-Pettinato

Cassie Holguin-Pettinato is a Chicana poet, collage artist, and theremin musician living in the El Paso/Juárez frontera with her daughter. She is the author of The Lamb’s Tail (Bottlecap Press, 2022). Holguin-Pettinato graduated from the University of Texas at El Paso with a BA in Creative Writing and a minor in Museum Studies. Her poetry and art have appeared in Chrysalis, Chismosa Press, Barrio Panther, and an anthology titled American Graveyard, Calls To End Gun Violence, published by Read or Green Books.

www.cassiehp.weebly.com