The Missed Deadline
The magazine my wife reads has launched,
by the Mother’s Month, a writing contest.
A married woman should report works
and troubles on raising her children,
showing the drudgery of everyday life.
To the winner, an unpriced diamond ring.
Brilliant writer, surely confident in her pen
and in her extreme love for our three sons,
soon she started the writing.
Then, there was a lot of school homework,
the babysitter left the service
and our youngest child has become ill.
Today, the work still incomplete,
she missed the contest deadline.
I’m rightly concerned one diamond ring
will wrongly adorn some mother’s hand.
Mr. Ferreira is a Brazilian poet who writes in English rather than Portuguese. Recent works have appeared in Red Wolf Journal, Right Hand Pointing, Creative Talents Unleashed (Featured Poet), Indiana Voice Journal, The Lake, Young Ravens, Whispers, Every Day Poems, Dead Snakes, The Basil O’Flaherty (Featured Poet), among others. Ferreira lives in a small town with wife, three sons and a granddaughter and, unhurried, is collecting his works for a forthcoming book. He began to write at age 63 (nine years ago), after retirement as a Bank Manager. See more of his poems at www.edilsonmeloferreira.wordpress.com.