The Ballad of the Heroic Mother
a true story
A toddler into water fell
And sank as quick as rock.
At nine feet deep, she couldn’t yell
Or jump or thrash in shock.
Her mother heard the splash portend
Her daughter’s water grave;
She dove into the pool’s deep end,
Her little girl to save.
She grabbed her daughter, held her tight,
And with a presto prayer
Sprang toward the shimmering sun of white
To give her girl some air.
She held her up while sinking down,
And knew to save her daughter
That she herself might well soon drown
So inched toward shallow water.
Seconds before her lungs gave out,
Her face felt heat and air.
Her feet on ground, she breathed a shout:
“Success!” An answered prayer!
The whole crowd cheered the mom en masse;
She gained a hero’s glory.
She told the public-speaking class—
I still think of the story.
Signs of a Broken Home
“The bigger the issue, the smaller you write. Remember that. You don’t write about the horrors of war. No. You write about a kid’s burnt socks lying on the road.” -Richard Price
At the foot of the dumpster lay signs on the ground,
But I wonder why these were there lying around.
I would never have guessed that there someone had laid
The sign: “Home is where all the best memories are made.”
And a heartbreaking counterpoint next to it lay:
“We create our tomorrow by dreaming today.”
There are people who write of the horrors of war,
But a child’s burnt socks on a road will say more.
At the foot of the dumpster lay signs on the ground,
But I wonder why these were there lying around.
Joshua C. Frank works in the field of statistics and lives near Austin, Texas. His poetry has also been published in The Society of Classical Poets, Snakeskin, Atop the Cliffs, and The Asahi Haikuist Network, and his short fiction has been published in Nanoism.
Sparks of Calliope 