Birthday Twin
He has the same birthday as me
Born on the same day
Same city
Same hospital
Hours apart
We came into the world
Brewing with so much potential
Somehow we found our way
to the same grade school-
middle school-
math class-
He has the same birthday as me
Born on the same day
Yet somehow
He found a way out quicker
Managed to leave the world sooner
He should have known it wasn’t a race
Not one he was supposed to win
Not for another sixty years
When he was old and balding
Having lived life
He had the same birthday as me
He was turning seventeen in six months
I would have wished him a happy birthday
He would have started Junior year
Stressed about midterms
And homecoming dates
We would be on opposite sides of the city
Fearing the same, or at least similar,
Future
I’m left alone with a future.
My birthday twin is gone-
He died on Thursday night
He went in his sleep
This October, I’ll send him happy birthday wishes
one’s he’ll never hear
3 thoughts on "Birthday Twin"
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beautiful, especially repetition of first line and heart-wrenching last stanza
It’s amazing how you analyze a situation from one unique point of view.
I feel the loss, a question about mortality, how one is taken too soon, the other still here.