Audre Lorde(1934–1992)
From the House of Yemanja
My mother had two faces and a frying pot
where she cooked up her daughters
into girls
before she fixed our dinner.
My mother had two faces
and a broken pot
where she hid out a perfect daughter
who was not me
I am the sun and moon and forever hungry
for her eyes.
I bear two women upon my back
one dark and rich and hidden
in the ivory hungers of the other
mother
pale as a witch
yet steady and familiar
brings me bread and terror
in my sleep
her breasts are huge exciting anchors
in the midnight storm.
All this has been
before
in my mother's bed
time has no sense
I have no brothers
and my sisters are cruel.
1. "Mother of the other Orisha [the goddesses and Yemanja's long breasts, and when she fled with her
gods . . . of the Yoruba peoples of Western Nige- pots he knocked her down. From her breasts
ria], Yemanja is also the goddess of oceans. Rivers flowed the rivers, and from her body then sprang
are said to flow from her breasts. One legend has forth all the other Orisha. River-smooth stones are
it that a son tried to rape her. She fled until she Yemanja's symbol, and the sea is sacred to her fol-
collapsed, and from her breasts, the rivers flowed. lowers. Those who please her are blessed with
Another legend says that a husband insultedmany children" [Lorde's note].
Mother I need
Mother I need
mother I need your blackness now
as the august earth needs rain.
I am
the sun and moon and forever hungry
the sharpened edge
where day and night shall meet
and not be
one.