Maggie Rainey-Smith
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    • Daughters of Messene
    • Turbulence
    • About turns
  • Poems
    • At Katherine's Bay
    • After the storm
    • By the yellow gingham chair
    • Cross Country
    • Formica (a continuation)
    • Life of a working girl
    • Love in the Fifties
    • Menopause
    • Mother-in-law to newborn granddaughter
    • Mulling it Over
    • Ngawhatu
    • Quite an Assistant (The Coroner's Report)
    • That summer
    • The Death Ride
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Mother-in-law to newborn granddaughter

The hyphens implicate
me in the mothering
of your mother
who has no need

of another mother
and they mean too
that you my grand
daughter

(and grand you are)
are part of her
and part of me
and the hyphens

mean I’m your daddy’s
mother (minus any
hyphens – but plus
an umbilical)

which is rather like a
hyphen syphoning
blood from me to him
and then eventually to you
​

and hyphens are both
punctuation and
bridges and require
careful consideration
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  • Home
  • Biography
  • Books
    • Daughters of Messene
    • Turbulence
    • About turns
  • Poems
    • At Katherine's Bay
    • After the storm
    • By the yellow gingham chair
    • Cross Country
    • Formica (a continuation)
    • Life of a working girl
    • Love in the Fifties
    • Menopause
    • Mother-in-law to newborn granddaughter
    • Mulling it Over
    • Ngawhatu
    • Quite an Assistant (The Coroner's Report)
    • That summer
    • The Death Ride
  • Book Reviews
  • Blog
  • Twitter