Mother’s Day

Dear Mother, 
Do you remember when 
I was a child and we sang  
He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands 
every Sunday at the folk mass? 
I imagined your face cradled 
in God’s strong, warm palms. 
Were they too warm, Mother? 
Is that why your glaciers are melting? 
Did those hands squeeze too tight? 
Is that why the volcanoes are erupting? 
I’m worried about you, Mother.
I'm afraid you may have fallen 
into the wrong hands.
 
 
Dear Child, 
The only hands I am in are yours,  
and all your sisters and brothers.  
Hands that clear-cut my forests, 
and forge islands out of plastic,  
Hands that wring oil from my veins, 
And dump trash into my oceans. 
Don’t worry about God’s Hands, my child. 
Worry about your own.
Worry when they reap the harvest 
of convenience and waste, 
worry about how you will wash 
the stain of complicity 
from under your own fingernails.  




Soliloquy of the Snow

I remember those Sunday nights long ago
when you would beg me to come.
You gazed at that postcard 
of St. Patrick’s Cathedral
blurred by one of my best blizzards,
only the outlines of the majestic steeples
visible through my veil of white.

In those days, all you wanted
was a day off from school
and time to build a snowman
in the playground—
a simple enough wish 
but wishes hold no sway with weather
and Monday usually rolled around
with nothing but a brisk wind. 

Now, looking out the window 
at a gray December rain,
it’s no longer a day off you seek.
Please come, you beg, 
as you gaze at the unused shovel
in the corner of your garage
next to the snow tires
you didn’t bother to install 
for the second year in a row. 

Today my longed-for arrival 
means more than snow angels 
and hot chocolate.
Now when you scan the horizon
for a glimpse of me,
it isn’t a lovely landscape you seek.
It’s a reason to hope that 
despite all the warnings,
despite all the evidence,
it’s not too late.  

______________________________________

Gloria Heffernan’s forthcoming book Fused will be published by Shanti Arts Books in Spring, 2025. Her craft book, 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 work has appeared in over 100 publications including Poetry of Presence (vol. 2). To learn more, visit: www.gloriaheffernan.wordpress.com.