by Maria Hummel
First published 2013
Maria Hummel watches her young son sleep in the pediatric ward, tubes connecting his small body to machines that keep him alive. For thirty-three years she created nothing with her body, then came her children, then came the sickness that would define their lives. Her son battles an acute immune disorder that requires repeated hospitalizations, transforming their California existence into a cycle of medical crises and cautious recoveries. Hummel transforms these bedside vigils into poetry, each piece a love letter written in the predawn hours when hope feels possible. By nightfall, those same verses become apologies for all the ways a mother's love cannot shield her child from suffering. Through formal verse and lyrical prose, she captures the suspended reality of the hospital ward, where childhood's immortal world collides with its fragility. This debut collection maps the geography of maternal devotion tested by illness, finding beauty in the most basic elements of survival.
Genres: literary-fiction, contemporary, poetry, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, lyrical, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, medical-trauma
Setting: California
Period: 21st-century
96 pages · Paperback · American Poetry Review
Content warnings: medical-trauma