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They Have Our Genes

They have our genes; they’re human beings,
Our fifteen frozen embryos.
Regardless of your disagreeings,
They have our genes; they’re human beings.
They must be born, by God’s decreeings,
Be hugged, and play where water flows.
They have our genes; they’re human beings,
Our fifteen frozen embryos.

.

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Child-Poor Homes

The ghosts of children never made,
In child-poor homes, I always see.
One day, when I a visit paid,
The ghosts of children never made
All ran around the house and played,
From ages eighteen down to three.
The ghosts of children never made,
In child-poor homes, I always see.

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Joshua C. Frank works in the field of statistics and lives in the American Heartland.  His poetry has been published in Snakeskin, The Lyric, Sparks of Calliope, Westward Quarterly, Atop the Cliffs, Our Day’s Encounter, The Creativity Webzine, Verse Virtual, and The Asahi Haikuist Network, and his short fiction has been published in Nanoism and The Creativity Webzine.

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12 Responses

  1. Susan Jarvis Bryant

    Josh, firstly I love a the triolet form, and you have made the very best of the musicality and repetition to get a powerful message across… a message not welcome in days where large families are no longer celebrated but instead frowned upon as a threat to our planet. Your poems offer an alternative view to the mainstream one rammed down our necks continually and I thank you for it. There are two sides to every story… and I prefer the one that embraces the miracle of birth.

    Reply
    • Drilon Bajrami

      I think politicians now more than ever WANT people to have large families. The low birth rates in western countries like the UK and US have between a 1.5-1.6 birth rate, which will lead to a decreasing population and economic problems down the road. 2.1 is the rate for keeping a population the same.

      Look at Japan, their economy peaked in the 90s and has been stagnating ever since because of their low birth rates and it’s been exasterbated by their very low rate of immigration. Western countries have been benefiting from the latter since immigrant families tend to be larger and hence contribute to population more.

      We should want more babies because the future looks bleak if we don’t. We’ll have a very large elderly population depending on welfare from a small pool of working, tax-paying people. Maybe parents need more tax breaks and benefits to entice them. Maybe free day-care before school, because I know family members spending over half of one parent’s salary just on day-care. And both work professional jobs. They must be printing money at day-care centres! Something needs to change, for sure.

      Reply
      • Joshua C. Frank

        Drilon, thank you for commenting. I used to think the government was merely stupid over matters like this. Yet if it were merely stupidity, the errors would be in our favor half the time, when in reality, nothing the government does favors us.

        The powers that run the world want us childless so that we have nothing we consider worth putting ourselves above the government. For just one minor example of how they make this happen, take a look at my poem “Laws Matter:” https://classicalpoets.org/2023/10/24/after-brain-death-and-other-poetry-by-joshua-c-frank/

        But it’s not just the government. It’s corporations, the media, the schools, even churches. Everyone with power wants a new world order where we live for nothing except our next consumer high, and they’re more successful in this by the day. Women, from their earliest days, are encouraged to be anything except mothers (you can find plenty of poems I’ve written about that subject). The more our natural instincts are suppressed, we lose everything that gives our lives meaning, and we’re enslaved to our basest lusts, the more rich and powerful they become.

        They don’t care that they’re running the world into the ground. All they care about is appeasing their own lusts and squashing anyone who gets in their way.

        For more, please read The Boniface Option by Andrew Isker, 180° by Feargus O’Connor Greenwood, and Catholic and Identitarian by Julien Langella.

    • Joshua C. Frank

      Thank you, Susan. That’s why I write them. To quote my own poem “The Pietà or Mickey Mouse?,” I’m “Compelled to write the truth my readers/Have all had stolen by my leaders.” I’m going to have to steal that last line in your comment for my own use!

      Reply
  2. Roy Eugene Peterson

    These poems are a touching reminder of the value of having children and our purpose on earth. They are a direct jab to the left and I applaud you!

    Reply
    • Joshua C. Frank

      Thank you, Roy. Fighting the juggernaut that is leftism is one of the reasons I write these.

      Reply
  3. Jeff Eardley

    Joshua, short, sweet and so powerful. Children are the future for all of us. Great to read. Thank you.

    Reply
    • Joshua C. Frank

      Thanks Jeff! That’s what I like about the triolet form—it packs a wallop in eight lines (five if you don’t count repetition).

      Reply
  4. Brian A. Yapko

    Your heart for children shines in these poems, Josh. It is haunting to consider the faces that might have been and yet never were.

    Reply
    • Joshua C. Frank

      Thank you very much, Brian. One reason I write on this subject is so people can see “the faces that might have been and yet never were” and hopefully want to bring more into existence.

      Reply
  5. Margaret Coats

    Most satisfactory triolets, Josh, with rhythm and repetition skillfully handled. To tell a true story that has to do with both, consider my former student who married almost 15 years ago in the hope of a large family. After 10 years and no children, he and his wife consulted a fertility specialist and many tests proved them incapable of children. The most important thing they did then was bid farewell to the specialist, who might have led them down the evil path of producing children by technology. Instead they accepted the situation, and looked into adoption (a long complicated process). Two more years, the woman conceived, and they have a one-year-old son in what they consider a child-blessed home.

    The technology route is what leads to children in suspended animation and “disagreeings” between parents about what to do with them. Even if they should agree to give birth, several could be expected to die during thawing and implantation (as I’m sure you know). Sad state of affairs for human beings to think of undertaking! Kudos on deploring the unnatural option by showing its pitfalls.

    Reply
    • Joshua C. Frank

      Thank you, Margaret! What a great story about that couple.

      I agree with you about the technology route, and yes, I know how it works. As you may remember from a comment on a different poem, I wrote another poem (rejected here) on the same subject, called “Left in the Cold,” published with some others in New English Review: https://www.newenglishreview.org/articles/red_flags/

      Reply

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