Mother, Less Child
Paper Nautilus, 2014
Co-winner, 2013 Vella Chapbook Contest
“I won’t hurt you, but you won’t hurt me; this is the double consciousness of black men and boys. The rhetorical questioning of homage and how to appropriately pay homage is questioned or answered in Jason McCall’s Mother, Less Child. Here, we find our ancestors in the form of brown boys who became cultural idols much too soon. From a found poem illustrating the loss of our Trayvon Martin to a mural of faces of which Emmett Till anchors, these lines interrogate us all. In “If I Had a Son,” the speaker professes, “I’d make him promise not to ‘f’/ around in Cullman County or Louisville, Ohio.” These voices are unafraid, and the line breaks are tight. McCall introduces himself as every young poet should: through an offering, pouring out for those who couldn’t be here.” -Derrick Harriell
“I won’t hurt you, but you won’t hurt me; this is the double consciousness of black men and boys. The rhetorical questioning of homage and how to appropriately pay homage is questioned or answered in Jason McCall’s Mother, Less Child. Here, we find our ancestors in the form of brown boys who became cultural idols much too soon. From a found poem illustrating the loss of our Trayvon Martin to a mural of faces of which Emmett Till anchors, these lines interrogate us all. In “If I Had a Son,” the speaker professes, “I’d make him promise not to ‘f’/ around in Cullman County or Louisville, Ohio.” These voices are unafraid, and the line breaks are tight. McCall introduces himself as every young poet should: through an offering, pouring out for those who couldn’t be here.” -Derrick Harriell