June 21, 2026
Irène Mathieu
.jpg)
Irène P. Mathieu (she/her/hers) is a pediatrician and poet. She is author of the poetry collections milk tongue (Deep Vellum Press), Grand Marronage (Switchback Books), orogeny (Trembling Pillow Press), and the galaxy of origins (dancing girl press).
one afternoon in the year of fascism
the grocery store for some reason
is full of young Black men buying flowers
Mothering a young child splintered my attention, particularly during those first few years, and as a result I found my language splintered. Part of what guides this series of poems, though, is a curiosity about what new ways of writing might emerge from this new reality, rather than mourning what I could no longer access. I decided to approach my altered relationship to language as a poetic experiment instead of being disheartened by it.