Mahogany

A searing collection of poetry on diaspora, motherhood, and postcolonial legacies.

Taking its name from the national tree of Belize and the country’s biggest export during its colonial period, Mahogany traces the poet’s fraught journey into self-actualization in the shadow of capitalism. The poems travel from the galleries of pre-war Kyiv, where she questions her role as her artist partner’s muse, back in time to engage with the socioeconomic history of Belize. Through the language of her father’s doctoral dissertation on Belize’s postcolonial economic condition, written during Jimenez Gabb’s childhood, the poet begins to explore the mother wound as she struggles to mother her own child.