Molecular Memory by Natalie Giarratano

“With stunning precision and lush surprise, Natalie Giarratano describes the harrowing experience
of birthing her child through an emergency C-section in the opening poems of Molecular
Memory. “I am in this room/ when our clustering begins/ but cannot hear her cries/ over the
blood-thrumming./ I’m off taunting the cosmos, baby.” From this position both present to earthly
concerns and in dialogue with the cosmic, Giarratano describes the broader challenges of
mothering through late capitalism, ecological crisis, and the racism of the twenty-first century.
“There is meaning in every minute/ of what is not wasted…” Giarratano writes. “Obliterate the
names/ of saints with the true names of trees…” The result is required reading for all of us who
might “mother”—biologically, spiritually, or intellectually, across sexes, genders, and species.
Molecular Memory is document of crisis and a call for change.”

– Susan Briante, author of Defacing the Monument

Cover image: “Buckminsterfullerene” by Melissa Gwyn

Originally from Southeast Texas, Natalie Giarratano is the author of two poetry collections—Big Thicket Blues and Leaving Clean. Her poems have appeared in Waxwing, Mississippi Review, McNeese Review, and South Carolina Review, among others. An editor, she lives in Colorado with her partner and daughter.