Roman Father
by Duane Herrmann
Roman soldier wrote
home to his wife -
the letter survived
two thousand years
against all odds
of war and fire and wet.
His attitude reflected
the social order.
He was the Lord
of her life and children;
his command was law,
her law to obey.
She had no choice.
She would soon give birth,
he would not be home
so wrote his instruction:
“If the baby is a girl
kill it.”
About the Author
Duane L. Herrmann, internationally published, award-winning poet and historian, has held a variety of teaching and other positions, now retired. His history and poetry have won awards and are translated into several languages. His sci-fi novel: Escape from Earth, has just been published. His full-length collections of poetry are: Prairies of Possibilities, Ichnographical: 173, and Praise the King of Glory. His poetry has received the Robert Hayden Poetry Fellowship, inclusion in American Poets of the 1990s, the Map of Kansas Literature (website), Kansas Poets Trail and others. His history, By Thy Strengthening Grace, received the Ferguson Kansas History Book Award in 2007. Collections of short stories and historical articles are forthcoming. These accomplishments defy his traumatic childhood embellished by dyslexia, ADD and, now, PTSD.