Connections
Daryl Muranaka
Early morning and I pull
the little boy up and out
of the nighttime crib.
He nestles his head into
the crux of my shoulder and neck.
How I love my boy
and others coo
that my boy loves his Daddy.
This is our connection—
how sometimes it is so
tenuous compared to his nursed
link with his mother, how she
will always be the one
when he scrapes a knee
or the ball takes a bounce to the face.
But I will spend all night
next to him, on the floor,
holding his little fingers,
feeling their tiny ridges.
Daryl Muranaka was raised in California and Hawaii. He currently lives in the Boston area with his wife and two children. In his spare time, he enjoys aikido and taijiquan and exploring his children’s dual heritages.