This poem depicts a poor, obese black woman who relies on welfare for survival. Her body shows the effects of a life of poverty and poor nutrition. Her children have no toys and play in unsafe areas due to their impoverished conditions. The woman resents society for her situation and sees claiming welfare as taking what she is owed rather than accepting charity.

1. Momma Welfare Roll
Maya Angelou

2. Her arms semaphore fat triangles,
Pudgy hands bunched on layered hips
Where bones idle under years of fatback
And lima beans.
Her jowls shiver in accusation
Of crimes clichéd by repetition.

3. Her children, strangers
To childhood's toys,
Play best the games of
darkened doorways,
rooftop tag, and know the
slick feel of other people’s property

4. Too fat to whore,
Too mad to work,
Searches her dreams
for the lucky sign and
walks bare-handed
into a den of bureaucrats
for her portion.
“They don’t give me welfare. I take it.”

5. Visual Poetry
• This poem really speaks
through visualization
• You get to know this
woman through her body
• She is black,
southern and obese
• Her body is the symbol or
semaphore of racial injustice

6. Emotional Poetry
• This woman is no stranger to
need and suffering
• The description of her kids
really hits home to me
• The kids are poor and have
no toys and play in the streets
• The phrase of the “slick feel”
reminds me of stolen goods

7. Bitter Resentment
• The woman represents the
resentment of the poor and
underprivileged
• She is “too mad” to work,
upset at society for throwing
her under the bus
• There is no way to succeed
for her except through luck

8. Getting Even
• This poem describes the
attitude of many on welfare
• The last line describes the
attitude of non-charity
• She “takes” from them what
they owe her from repeated
crimes against humanity
• She doesn’t take handouts

9. What’s The Message?
• She is a signal to the power
that be that the system is
broken and does not work
• She is a victim who
victimizes the program
• What is needed is not
welfare, but deep social
reconciliation