tendinitis

Achilles had a mother and

boy, she messed up.

Heart was in the right place,

wherever that is.

More of an execution

issue if history and

myth can be believed.

Waking up to a fiery

pain exploding in my

right heel makes me

think of her. She made her

son famous. Her error too.

Come morning, I’ll ice

my heel and call my mother.

We’ll argue about something.

Assign blame. Change the

subject with a mixture of

learned indifference and

earned mercy. I’ll wonder

if the hero’s mother foresaw

all the death and pain her son

would wreak. The blood and grief

in his wake. Wonder if she knew

exactly what she was doing.

Kent Kosack is a writer with recent work in minor literature[s], the Heavy Feather Review, 3:AM Magazine, and Some Words. His nonfiction chapbook, Prose Scraps, will be published Fall 2026 by Map Literary. You can read more at kentkosack.net