The Cord

Hey there little bro

Happy birthday!

Although, I suppose

Big bro would be more apt

You were, after all,

Born a few seconds before

I remember how eager

You were to get out

To take that first

Breath of fresh air

And as you left

That cord

The one that held us together

Snapped

And blood

Oh my god

So much blood

It spilled everywhere

Yours

Mine

All intermingling

All wasting

All flowing out

And as the blood overwhelmed me

Blinded me

You began to look different

No longer the companion

I had known all this time

I remember screaming

Asking you to stop

But somewhere

I couldn’t stop myself

And in that moment

I knew things had changed

Several decades have passed, brother

And you’ve hurt me

More than I could have imagined

Though if truth be told

I’m sure I’ve done the same

No sooner than we had taken our new breaths

Than we were fighting over the same toys

Crying new battle cries

All the while

Rubbing the scar on our sides

The one that got ripped

When you pulled apart

Or was it I

Who pushed you out

The scar that still bleeds

From time to time

Sometimes

I look back to the days

Before we were born

When we were one

Playing

Laughing

Dreaming

For a future

That had looked a bit different

Because this future

The one that’s become our past

And our present

This wasn’t what we had dreamed of

It’s been far too long

Living in this hatred

And I’ll admit

I never understood

That ripping us apart

Was actually

Your first breath on your own

A breath I resented

I was angry at you for leaving

Since you tore me in half

Angry at myself

For not being able to stop you

But it’s been 68 years, little bro

68 years

You realize how long it’s been

Since we played together

Laughed together

Dreamt together

Of a future

That’s different from our past

And our present

But I get it

Too much has changed

The hurt is too deep

I don’t ask for love

I don’t ask for the old days

But perhaps

An end of the hatred

An end of the hurt

And a moment

Where both of us

Can wish ourselves

A happy birthday

And actually mean it.