Nature
Each one of the metaphors (water, moon's eye, sunrise, fish’s red gill, flame tree’s spread, the crab’s leg, the fried plantain smell) that the speaker uses to describe her mother stems from the natural world. Nichols’ range in the selection of metaphors demonstrates the poetic richness of nature; over the course of the poem, the speaker compares her mother to planetary, botanical, zoological, and culinary aspects of nature. Through these metaphors, Nichols is able to capture a wide array of her mother's traits, from her boldness to her replenishing effect. These metaphors also pique different senses, including sight, hearing, touch, and smell.
Relationship between Mother and Child
The poem takes the form of a “praise song” for the speaker's mother. By employing the possessive pronoun "my" in the title, the speaker specifies that she will be describing a personal relationship between her mother and herself. The intimacy of this relationship is emphasized through the repetition of “to me” in each stanza and the direct address of "you." Adjective selection throughout the poem—including “deep,” “warm,” and “replenishing”—further underlines the power of their bond. The intimate relationship between mother and child an almost universal experience, yet Nichols achieves this effect by describing her personal and singular relationship with her mother.
Nostalgia
Although nothing is explicitly stated, the use of past tense in the poem implies that the speaker's mother has passed away. Thus, the speaker is recalling and describing a former relationship. Because their relationship is recalled by the narrator as intimate and close, the usage of the past tense is poignant and tragic. A sense of great loss is conveyed. There is also a contrast between the past tense and the "wide futures" mentioned in the final line, which is a quotation from the mother. While the mother remains in the past and in memories, the speaker and the poem continue on into the future.
