away from
certain names
for their children

if it’s to be a
girl child then
they choose not

cressida, nor
jezebel, nor
lucretia, nor
delilah, nor
goneril, nor

certainly not
clytemnestra . . .

and if it’s to be a
boy child then not

adolf, nor
benedict, nor
brutus, nor
gollum, nor
cain, neither

certainly not
judas . . .

but I ponder

while some
do choose so, yet
why not more do
name them

after My Son . . .

Carl Winderl, former Professor of Writing at Point Loma Nazarene University, earned a Ph.D. from New York University in Creative Writing, currently lives in Zagreb, Croatia. Finishing Line Press has published three poetry books of his: Mary Speaks of Her Son (2005), la Via de La Croce (2008), and Behold the Lamb (2015).