Crow and Mama

When Crow cried his mother's ear Scorched to a stump. When he laughed she wept Blood her breasts her palms her brow all wept blood. He tried a step, then a step, and again a step - Every one scarred her face for ever. When he burst out in rage She fell back with an awful gash and a fearful cry. When he stopped she closed on him like a book On a bookmark, he had to get going. He jumped into the car the towrope Was around her neck he jumped out. He jumped into the plane but her body was jammed in the jet - There was a great row, the flight was cancelled. He jumped into the rocket and its trajectory Drilled clean through her heart he kept on And it was cosy in the rocket, he could not see much But he peered out through the portholes at Creation And saw the stars millions of miles away And saw the future and the universe Opening and opening And kept on and slept and at last Crashed on the moon awoke and crawled out Under his mother's buttocks.

freedom narrative poem dark dreamlike

Crow and Mama - meaning Summary

Escape from the Maternal Source

The poem presents Crow's emergence into the world as inseparable from injury to his mother. His cries, movement, anger, and attempts to travel away all wound or entangle her. Even his journey through space, which seems to promise freedom and distance, ends beneath her body. The poem turns birth and separation into a bleak, grotesque vision of dependence: Crow cannot escape the maternal source from which he comes.

Read Complete Analyses