I am my mother’s daughter
By Marion Rai
An immigrant anthem.
I. Beginning; fragile hands hold me firm to the ground, pressing weight of her heart we are painted of a lost, unknown culture: आमा. mother and daughter. afraid foreign land, fleeting fears II. End It begins and ends there isn’t a middle. It’s over as soon as it begins, abrupt. Like broken english that has been left to scratch the walls of her neck, choking in the depths of her throat and then the deafening silence. III. मृत्यु; eulogy haze. haze. haze. her silent pleas to not bury her culture within her, muffled like withering flowers in my malnourished body. Stifling stench of guttural death and frozen hands. I climb to the coffin and lay down my mother’s dreams. a silent death to all our unspoken words.
Taking Root: The Girls Write Now 2022 Anthology
For more than two years, our young writers have weathered an adolescence shaped by an ongoing global pandemic. But a harsh climate can also produce work of rare depth, complexity, nuance and humor. The Girls Write Now mentees in this collection have found new ways to build community and take root. This anthology is a catalog of seeds—each young writer cultivating a shimmering, emergent voice. In short stories, personal essays, poetry, and more, they reflect on life-altering topics like heartbreak, self-care and friendship. The result is a stunning book with global relevance of all this generation has endured and transformed.
Process
The inspiration for this piece mostly came from within; it was more like an overwhelming feeling that flooded my mind for a fleeting second and longed to exist—to become a being of its own.
Marion Rai
Marion Rai is a high school junior and an author of realistic fiction. Her short stories often feature communities in her home country of Nepal and look at issues of gender, culture and the spiritual/religious belief system. In 2021, she won third place in the LILAC Writing Contest for short stories and is an editor for Polyphony Magazine. She enjoys playing basketball and skateboarding.
