Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Home Again

Home Again

After it’s over, it’s just begun.
A trick of nature, this parenting

thing. Just when we exhale
with a deep sigh of relief

the phone rings and once again
we’re comforting a crying baby,

intervening in a sibling crisis,
explaining bad behavior to

the school dean or pacing the hall
at the hospital awaiting the worst.

Whether we know it or not, want it
or not we’ve signed on for a lifetime

of upheavals, crises, responsibilities-
infinite turmoil, a world without end.

They return and leave, return again
like the ebb and flow of the ocean tides.

New problems, like fresh sea urchins
wash ashore with each incoming swell,

leaving us exhausted in their wake.
Our lives forever controlled by the moon.

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