Children of My Thirties
Children dominated my past decade.
I married even before it began
within three years we started a family.
Trouble is: they never stayed longer than eight weeks.
They left us puzzled
paired in loss and blood.
Five in all we know
but never knew.
My wife retracted like a measure
and I drifted,
my heart a jonah
caught in the wail
of an embryo’s passing.
© 2002 Homer Christensen