Happy Birthday Brother
With the old war gods Jupiter
Saturn and Mars risen in the east
and the bovine braying
from the weanling field
greeting the subtle light
of one of our earlier dawns,
I awaken to the mosquito
buzz of your insistent
voice, your bipolar self
existing nowhere but in the
increase of bird song
that blazes through this
moonless morning. All my senses
are attuned to the penultimate
creak and rub of the old man
I have now become…a version
of you, sometimes strong
sometimes weak as I
navigate the distance between
us and reach the age when
you knew enough was enough
and deliberately decided to
dissolve your bond with this
life and left without me
11 thoughts on "Happy Birthday Brother"
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So much good here.
“the weanling field” is just great words and the complexity in the line break of …”the old man/I have now become…a version/of you”
Such an intimate and powerful poem. The first sentence of the poem is beautiful. I love how it snakes down the page and takes up almost half of the space.
scary to consider the “penultimate creak and rub”
!!!!!!!!!!!!
“penultimate creak” sounds ominous
This is such a tender elegy. I love the details in the first half of the poem.
Jim – What a delight to read your words again! So soft and intense at the same time. “penultimate/ creak and rub of the old man/I have now become” Yowzers!
Hearing your brother’s voice in birdsong. Tender, bittersweet poem, especially “left without me”. So good to read your poetry again!!
💚💚💚
left without me. beautifully earned ending.
or should I better say, accomplished.