If a Mother Delights

Antoinette F. Winstead

June 3, 2022

For the hand that rocks the cradle 

is the hand that rules the world.

William Ross Wallace (1819 – 1881)

They discussed in breathless delight

the Valentine love tokens

bestowed upon them 

by their husbands

not chocolate filled candy boxes

wrapped in red velvet ribbons

nor sparkling diamonds

set in princess cut settings

these love tokens. 

Yet they trilled and thrilled

over what had been bestowed them

by their loving husbands

hard cold steel

with fifteen rounds standard

so delighted were they

with these shows of affection

proof their husbands loved them enough

to provide them deadly protection.

And we wonder at the destruction

constantly around us

done by these love-gifted tokens? 

If a mother delights

in receiving deadly panoply

how can we expect society 

to ever see the wrong

in something so easily acquired

lovingly bestowed?

Antoinette F. Winstead, a poet, playwright, director, and actor, teaches film and theater courses at Our Lady of the Lake University where she serves as the Program Head for the Mass Communication and Drama programs. Her poetry has been published in The Ekphrastic Review, Langdon Review of the Arts in Texas, Voice de la Luna, and the 2022 Texas Poetry Calendar. For her poem “Life Is” she was nominated for a 2022 Pushcart Prize by the editor of Jerry Jazz Musician.