I feel... I want

I feel an intense need to say
Express all my emotions,
More and more times each day
I have---I must cross oceans.

I want to be with my children
Touch their loved faces,
How to explain -- I feel barren
They fulfill my empty spaces.

I think everyone has a gift
Always follow a particular path,
Yet one must never drift
And always decipher the math.

I want my personal legend
To last in their hearts if I’m gone,
No silent mysteries unquestioned
Even as the moonlight stretches to dawn.

I feel time escaping through my fingers
I see their children growing so fast,
Oh I stare at their pictures
My longing soul is overcast.

I feel---I want...
And all opportunities slipping,
Sometimes I just can’t...
Stop the clock from ticking.


(For my daughter Sylvia, and grandchildren Julia and Lucas, in Brazil.)
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