Determination

by K. B. Kubin

When her grandson — my dad — tells the story,
The way he sticks his elbows out with a sudden,
Feisty jab to demonstrate how Mutti
Saved herself defines determination:
She fell into a heating duct while cleaning,
And caught herself before she slid right down
Into the furnace — spent the whole day hanging
By elbows and resolve until sundown
When her husband got home and pulled her out.
Did it strike her how a moment cleaves
Both to and from a person’s life, or how
Her family would keep the story to weave
Her strength into their own as inheritance?
Just graft it in — we don’t believe in chance.