Breaking the Rules

Gloria Heffernan

My mother was the classroom
where I earned a Ph.D. in survival. 
Widowed at the same age Jesus died
she had no choice but to resurrect
herself and raise three kids 
as her own holy trinity 
in whom she never lost faith. 

With that kind of determination born in,
I couldn’t help but succeed.  
Even if I was too stupid 
to know I could never afford
to go to college—
until I did. 

And surely, I was too clueless 
to understand that no one would hire me
in my size-16 pink business suit purchased 
on clearance at Sy Syms Warehouse—
until they did.  

And in my forties, I was far too old
for a brilliant, funny, handsome man
to fall in love with me and marry me
and treat me the way the world said 
would never happen to somebody like me—
until he did. 

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Gloria Heffernan
Gloria Heffernan is the author of four poetry collections, most recently Moments of Color and Cloud (Shanti Arts Publishing). Her craft book, Exploring Poetry of Presence (Back Porch Productions) won the CNY Book Award for Nonfiction. She received the 2022 Naugatuck River Review Narrative Poetry Prize. Gloria is the author of the collections Fuse (Shanti Arts Publishing), Peregrinatio: Poems for Antarctica (Kelsay Books), and What the Gratitude List Said to the Bucket List, (New York Quarterly Books). Her forthcoming collection, Moments of Color and Cloud will be published by Shanti Arts in 2026.