You wouldn’t like it
if you knew, I know,
but I’ve done it for
so many years.
Taking advantage
of your slumbering senses,
I brush the hair from your brow,
kiss your forehead, 
and whisper in your ear
the mantra that’s been yours
since birth:
"I love you! I think you’re wonderful!
I’m so glad that you’re my son!"
From those first few nights when
I tiptoed in, holding my breath
to listen for yours,
through nights when you slept,
exhausted,
first from play, 
then from living,
then loving, until
now, as you lay here
sprawled and unguarded,
your big man body below
my little boy’s face.
Tomorrow, someone else will 
kiss you in the night;
this once,
I bend and kiss you
twice.