I stood, waiting, anticipating….anxious.
The smell of the place, of both life and death.
Emergency surgery takes you into an unknown.
Time passes, like ages and like an instance.
The door opens and creaking wheels approach.
She casually passes my hoped for stripling, and
A sneeze, then another is the first sign of life.
Quite natural as air is bartered for water.
I look into those unaware, naive, cold blue eyes.
He is so, meagre, small; beautifully fragile.
I am overwhelmed. Here is my myrrhy future.
Promises, prayers, oaths are artlessly offered.
He holds my fore-finger, and we shake on it.
My heart aches; he will know a different way,
an unconditional love, always, no matter.
I think my father was hard but not to the extent of harshness you grew up with. Still, I think you and I made this same pact, to be the kind of fathers we wished we had had.