He asks who is part of our family.
The folks who live next door?
Our babysitters? The cats?
He's asking in the technical sense, I think,
but the mystic in me wants to answer otherwise.
Yes, I want to say, everyone you love becomes family.
Let's welcome everyone into our clan.
Imagine the family reunions, the holiday parties,
the Thanksgiving dinner table.
I smile, and think of the beautiful beloveds in our life,
and my mouth struggles for proper words.
Oh, how I want my children to live in a world
where they treat everyone they meet as kin,
where their family circle grows and grows
until it includes the whole wide world.
