A spoken-word poem by Ana María Caballero visualized via a series of works coded in p5js that convey pregnant time–with its sensations of inevitability, vulnerability, and physical entrapment. Written in Caballero’s signature straightforward style, this text forms part of her prize-winning manuscript MAMMAL.
Caballero is a recipient of the Beverly International Prize and Colombia’s National José Manuel Arango Prize. Her writing, which has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, a Best of the Net, and been a finalist for the Academy of American Poets Prize, rips the veil off romanticized motherhood and questions notions that package female sacrifice as a virtue. Recognized as a Web3 poetry pioneer, she’s one of the cofounders of literary gallery theVERSEverse. She has three books forthcoming in 2023, all written in the hours before the world wakes up.
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It is done:
the child grows
silent as a new world.
I must consider it
when I eat.
Eat more.
Again.
I am thirsty,
again.
It is the baby:
already telling me
what to do.
