For My Stepson on Mother's Day

By Gloria Heffernan

A fraught phrase indeed,
bent under the weight
of Cinderella’s grasping interloper
and Sleeping Beauty’s apple-wielding witch.

Better to say,
“my father’s wife.” 
Less literary baggage
And no less accurate. 

But you made a different choice.
Nothing dramatic.
No naming ceremony. 
Just a simple introduction.

“This is my stepmom.”
A small thing to some 
But not, I think, to you…
Nor me.

Although I played no role
in making you the man you are,
you chose, with one word, 
to extend the invitation
only I could accept. 

Step in, you said. 
Step into my life. 
Step into my heart.
Step into my family. 

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Guest poetry written by Gloria Heffernan. Gloria’s Exploring Poetry of Presence (Back Porch Productions) won the 2021 CNY Book Award for Nonfiction. She received the 2022 Naugatuck River Review Narrative Poetry Prize. Gloria is the author of the collections Peregrinatio: Poems for Antarctica (Kelsay Books), and What the Gratitude List Said to the Bucket List, (New York Quarterly Books). Her forthcoming chapbook, Animal Grace, was selected for the Keystone Chapbook Series prize. Her work appears in over 100 publications including Poetry of Presence (vol. 2).

Photo by Jennifer Floyd.