Remember: he came out gasping

with a pinhole heart 

dripping into the expanse 

of his neonate body.

 

Heart cells 

reborn every solar cycle 

since he breathed in an incubator

and we paced in hallway pain

 

over days that leaked into darkness 

marked first by an absent moon 

to a waxing gibbous climb. 

 

Under an expanding glow, 

the defection closed

like a sealed pipe

redeemed within a home 

he’s since claimed as his own.

 

The front door of his eyes 

swung open 

where we waited 

by white gleaming chairs 

under fluorescent glare. 

 

Originally published in The Boy Born with a Pinhole Heart (2022)