Gratitude to Waco Cultural Arts Festival’s 2022 Anthology where this poem was first published and to Editor, Sandi Horton for choosing the poem.

Listen to Jonathan reading his poem here.

Porcelain Mother

As a child, I wished to look like you, asked
a light-toned Lord, who formed an earthen 
Adam, to whiten me. Yet he didn’t. Or 
couldn’t. Perhaps the Potter can’t make 
porcelain without kaolin. I must have 
been dug from the wrong color clay.
				
You assured me there were families like us:
mothers as light as chalk, children as dark
as mud. Materials that stain as easily as 
love. I would’ve burned in a kiln to turn 
out the same hue as you. But some clay,  
however baked, isn’t meant to be china.

O, how I envied the figurines of our crèche! 
Shepherds as white as their sheep, a milky 
Mary and Baby Jesus. When reminded 
of your favorite Bible verse: dust thou art
and unto dust shalt thou return, I only felt 
like dirt. I instead preferred your proverb:
	
           God doesn’t mold mistakes.

~Jonathan Fletcher

Originally from San Antonio, Texas, Jonathan Fletcher currently resides in New York City, where he is pursuing a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing in Poetry at Columbia University’s School of the Arts. He has been published by or in Arts Alive San Antonio; FlowerSong Press; Lone Stars; University of Texas Rio Grande Valley’s literary magazine, riverSedge; Our Lady of the Lake University’s literary journal, The Thing Itself; TEJASCOVIDO; and Voices de la Luna. His work has also been featured at the Briscoe Western Art Museum.