I'm thick in blood, and my heart
pounds too hard. I wake sometimes

with rapid drumming in my chest.
My wife sleeps beside me, the dog nestled near., 

my children in their rooms, sprawled, 
sweating with an energy inexhaustible.

Each child, each of us, a life anew,
a lens through which to see the world

we'll leave one day too soon. To love
is to confront & frustrate mortality.

Each child, a stone placed on
the broad earth. Each child

a dimple on the cheek of it all.