The Matrilineal Curse

A Daughter

My grandmother’s braid sits in a box in the closet

Gilded in innocence

Curled in anguish

Frozen in stifled youth

Her father sliced it from the nape of her neck

Perhaps he recognized her mother’s handywork

An inextricable maze

Of which he could not sense the rhythm

So Grandma clung tight to each strand on my mother’s scalp

tucked one lock over the other

Let nothing slip

Taught her the ancient weave

Now mom winces with each tug at my tender head

racked with woe

as I find the rhythm with ease

Each twist of her nimble fingers

A quiet apology for the matrilineal curse

I was born with it

Born from it

A hopeless tangle

Split and woven

A work of art

It lives in my womb

And I wonder

If I wait out each bleed

Let each moon’s tiny hope of life

Slip away

Will it all unravel?

Matthew O’Connor

Biography: Matthew (Matt) O’Connor (he/him) is an artist and student majoring in Public Health and International Studies with a minor in Studio Art. Born and raised in New York, he now lives in Corvallis, where he owns and operates a small art business, Temperance Collective, and attends OSU and LBCC as a dual partnership student. Matt grew up drawing and painting, with a sibling and father who share his passion for art. He expanded into photography when he got his first camera as a teen. Matt specializes in portraits, and is inspired by all the things we cannot say with words—but that we can see, and feel.

Artist Statement: This painting was done in a workshop where we were learning how to express our “inner muse”. Behind the painting itself is a message that says – “I choose to follow the path my heart has given me.” To me, this meant my path as an artist. This painting embodies “visions” to me–as in my vision of my future as an artist.

A Daughter

Biography: I am a creative by trade, but a poet solely for catharsis.

Artist Statement: Each generation that passes is a distorted vision of the past. In the mirror, my mother looks back. In my grief, visions of my grandmother’s hurt appear. Every woman in my family for generations has dealt with intense depression, and this poem reflects back on the ways the same internal experience manifests within different social contexts.