Alex Frankel
Alex will read from his autobiographical novel, Birth Mother Mercy, about the day he met his real mother.
Alex will read from his autobiographical novel, Birth Mother Mercy, about the day he met his real mother.
When
I think of the woman I met that day, I mix her up with my first-grade
teacher, Mrs. Arcigal. I’m not sure when I started doing this. It could
be that as a seven-year-old I made Mrs. Arcigal into a kind of mother
because I’d recently found out about my adoption: she was young and the
first pregnant person I ever knew. One day I asked her, “Are you
Jewish?” and she just looked at me and smiled a patient smile, with the
same look Martha gave me when I asked about her eyes. “No,” she
answered. “Why do you ask?” Sometimes I believe—even now—that Martha
was Mrs. Arcigal. Could Martha perhaps have been so curious about how
her biological son was doing that she disguised herself as my
first-grade teacher?
So this was her, after thirty years, the girl who had housed me in her body and allowed me to be born. She was as inconspicuous and ordinary as Fred, my birth father, was loud and blustery....
So this was her, after thirty years, the girl who had housed me in her body and allowed me to be born. She was as inconspicuous and ordinary as Fred, my birth father, was loud and blustery....
© 2026 Alex Frankel
Alex Frankel was a Featured Poet at the May 2026 Second Sunday Poetry Series
Alex Frankel was a Featured Poet at the May 2026 Second Sunday Poetry Series