Issue #114

There’s a chair outside
The kids’ rooms where I sit, read
The paper, answer

The delirious
Questions posited by tired
Toddlers until they’re

Asleep. But tonight
They’ve been dreaming for hours
And I’m back in the

Chair. When will they know
They’re as much a comfort to
Me as I to them?

Earlier today,
The doctor applauded my
Unanswerable

Questions. Tomorrow
I’ll lay impossibly still
Inside a machine

That earthquakes. Now (but
For drone in my ears) - silence
Of children sleeping.

LIFETIME HAIKU COUNT: 5008