Maybe I Always Knew

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Photo by Zhang

This has been the way of the world
since atoms first exploded
galaxies unfolded
and light grew

Though I didn’t know it

A baby wails, all red and wet
Seasons roll by, and
she grows from a tiny bud
into a strong tree

Though one day her time will come

The creeping awareness
of my mortality finds me
as I nurse my own child
my mind a whiteout from exhaustion

Maybe I always knew

Time is short, and
death is near
I buried the thought
within the folds of innocence

I have begun, I know,
...