Ode to My Brother on His Golden Birthday

(some very rough verse)



How can you be 28
when I so clearly remember
the day you were born?

I was in the living room
at Grandma and Grandpa's house.
Playing. . .
waiting. . .
when the phone rang.
Grandma answered it in the kitchen
the same phone she still rents from Ma Bell.

I walked
tentatively
across the dining room
toward the sound of her voice.
She hung up
as I reached the doorway
of the kitchen.
Turning to me
she beamed
"You have a baby brother!"
Just what I wanted!
How did mom and dad know?

How can you be 28
when it seems like I was 28
just a few blinks ago?

How did this gap in our ages
which, when we were teenagers,
seemed such an impossibly wide
C H A S M
suddenly close up on us
when we weren't looking?

How you can you be 28?
And yet
you are.
Time marches on
and your golden year
is waiting
to unfold.


Love you bro! Happy Birthday!