Speaker
The unnamed speaker of this poem can be reasonably assumed to be the author Grace Nichols herself, as the title identifies the addressee of the poem as “my Mother.”
Mother
Nichols’ mother is the object and addressee of this poem. She is described in a series of metaphors. She is described only in the past tense (“You were...”) throughout the poem, so it can be reasonably inferred that she has passed away.
