Revisions

A brief glimpse into how I've been revising my manuscript about mothering in and out of time.

My mother and I at Niagara Falls.

You may have spent some time with an earlier post where I share a small excerpt from my manuscript in-progress. I’ve made some revisions on this section with the intent of weaving past and current (or recent past) experiences to dismantle time and create a cyclical effect to thinking about motherhood. With that in mind, I’m sharing a revision of that previous excerpt below. Thank you for reading.

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My mother has to go to the doctor and it’s the first time I learn to hate her. I am straddling four and five years old and the summer is swallowing spring. My jacket is open and flaps against me while I run. I want to rip it off and let it fly as I run across the playground. I want to leave something that clings to me. I am laughing just minutes before I learn how to scream at her in the middle of the sidewalk. I’m at a preschool center in Roxbury that has a colorful mural painted on the wall next to the entrance. It’s walkable from Chinatown and the South End and because of this, my mother walks me there and most places surrounding our three neighborhoods. The edges of Roxbury, Chinatown, and the South End all float together and I learn this to be our universe. We’re from Boston and these areas become my Boston, a home that houses us as we grow from babies to kids.