Family

All have their share of dysfunction
perpetrated by past injury
perpetuated by rigidity
but there is a great deal to be said
for the vastness of shared experience
accumulated over time,
countless challenges and celebrations
traversed in concert over years-
birthdays, deathdays, confirmations,
bat mitzvahs, weddings, graduations-
not to mentioned the bond of blood
which does not in itself
create connection
but endows kinship
of behavior, thought, and feature
and taken all together
there is a stirring confidence
a knowing
a deep, if perhaps not boundless, well
of love, yes
but perhaps more enduring
intimacy, the weight
of lineage.