For Mothering Sunday, a gift – Eucharist by Becky Cherriman taken from her new poetry pamphlet, Echolocation.
Eucharist
Every morning the same, her asking,
Have you had your breakfast, got your lunch?
But breakfast wasn’t as important
as zapping zombies or texting Alex back
so, invariably, I lied.
Often, even with her face pale as brume,
her hair shedding like maths sheets from an open bag,
she’d rise and serve me porridge —
a Eucharist of grain and fruit.
Threes, she’d say,
the ladle tremoring in her left hand
and we’d speak our trios —
holy trinities of how the day before had been,
what we’d loved, and why.
Becky Cherriman, ‘Eucharist’, Echolocation, 2016
Echolocation is published by Mother’s Milk Books and is Becky’s first pamphlet, in which she explores single motherhood, infertility, the adoption process and more. You can order copies here.
Her first full collection is due out late in 2016 with Cinnamon Press.
Becky Cherriman is a writer, workshop leader and performer based in Leeds. Published on umbrellas, by Mslexia, New Walk, Envoi, Mother’s Milk, Bloodaxe, Well Versed and in Poets For Corbyn, she was resident poet for Morley Literature Festival in 2013. Her work has been translated into opera, film, art and into Italian for the socialist magazine Internazionale.
After thirteen years as a workshop facilitator, she works regularly for a number of key organisations and charities and is well-respected locally for her work.
A current collaboration is Haunt, an Imove commission, working with writer Steve Toase and people experiencing homelessness. The Hepworth Wakefield, The Rotunda Museum, Humbermouth Literature Festival, Imove and Grassington Festival have all commissioned her writing in the past. Much shortlisted in competitions, Becky’s poem First Date was runner up in the Yorkshire Open 2013. Poems Namesake and Paisley Quilt won first prize for The Speakeasy Open 2012 and second prize in the Ilkley Literature Open Mic 2011 respectively.
Becky has recently embarked on a series of weekly blogs focusing on a different inspiring mother: Mary Woolstonecraft, mother of feminism and Mary Shelley; Michelle Pfeiffer, adoptive mother; Margaret Garner – protective mother/murdering mother; Indira Gandhi – political mother; Kate Bush – singer-songwriter/strange mother; Marie Curie, scientist mother; Rebecca Adlington – sporty mother.
Becky’s website is www.beckycherriman.com
Becky’s photo is courtesy of Bryony Pritchard. The original cover image for Echolocation was taken by Jane Cardie at Whitby in July 2012.
