The Poetry of Mark Daniel Milbocker 
Joy

When I first looked
into the softness of your eyes,
held your bundle of warmth
tickled your grasping fingertips
cooed into your prismatic face
I felt fatherhood pour like
cement into my treadworn boots
steeling my spine 
lifting my face to the sky 
in adoration and wonder-
so it was that I first
felt...

It was a couple dozen years
before it dawned upon 
my self-worth that 
my seed would never sow
my love would ever be stale
my dreams vibrated at the frequency 
of other and alone in solitude
so I rolled it into a blessing
and inhaled as deeply as I might
until I felt the sweet paralysis 
of...
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