Family

How many lives came before you
To make your single embryo
Alive?

Alive with hair color and eye color
Alive with chromosomes and dreams
Alive with possibility–
Lost.

A “true knot,”
Formed just weeks after your heart began to beat
Spelled out your ultimate disaster.
But the world gave you 7 precious months of time.

Time to experience the world
through my body, my breath
my blood, my laughter
Your father’s hands
Your brother’s arms
Embracing you from the outside, in.

We all have our own “true knot”
To end our miraculous beginnings.

Yours just came
Earlier than most

Leaving our family to pick up the pieces of a puzzle
That will not fit