Separated In A Shipwreck.......For My Sons Poem by John Tansey

My kids are drifting away from me...
Like lifeboats from a shipwreck.

I speak with them, long distance, on the phone...
consisting of cursory conversations

Like 'Hi, Dad, i'm home', 'School was fine',
'Goodbye Dad', 'I love you to, Dad'.

Some bully called my little boy, Dylan,
a cry baby, and I was not there
As he tearfully cried, 'I AM NOT! '.

Brandon's learning to stand on his own, knowing,
that alone, he'll grow to become a man.

God, they're both my left and right lungs;
Brandon, the larger and Dylan, the smaller one.

Seeing them both, is like taking a deep breath
and holding it, for fear there will not be another one.