You are standing on the edge
peering in, wondering if
it is always this way, always
undulating between sheer joy
and frustration, swept up
in the calm and maelstrom
that is a large family, wishing
you had that family for yours.
There is always great love,
and you can sense that, but
there is a tension, a friction
of personalities rubbing against
each other, building a heat
that you are reluctant to touch.
So you observe and wonder
and at the end of the day
retreat to the comfort of your
carefully built nuclear cocoon.