More of a Mother

Poetry

Sep 18

Written By Megan Stewart

Emptiness is an internal expense I leave behind.

Carry peace in my belly like an unborn child.

Let it cleanse the clusters of my soul with clarity,

since marriage never met me with an offspring,

instead feeling off, barren, incomplete. I think

my thirties will allow me to have little ones

beside me where I teach them everything I know.

No, this natural womb has not produced another

human. My motherhood is a spiritual legacy.

Leaps through words, breaks metal heavy from

mental states. The brood I breed is poetry put

together, creamy cake batter, taken out of my

bowl, then bake for society to taste its sweetness.

Years yell out what I yearn to have and to hold

as I beckon hungry hearts, babies who need milk

to get full by the love language I settle into.

I pump poetry into bloodstreams, breastfeed

infants, those young and old. Some suck on its

strength. Others spit it out. Poetic milk hoses

down much hostility.

Birth is a beautiful blessing,

but building greatness in her children

is a mother’s best mission.

Traci Neal is a neurodivergent poet residing in Columbia, South Carolina. Neal has shared her poetic journey and late diagnosis in USA Today, Newsweek, Good News Post- UK, and The New York Times, to name a few. In 2025, she had over 50 poems published in 40 different publications. On March 11, 2026, an excerpt of Neal's poem, along with writers A Memi Sei and Brittany J. Green, was part of the Letters to America project to highlight America 250 from the black woman's perspective. The words were composed into a song sung by Soprano Karen Slack at Carnegie Hall.