This year
I forgot to write a poem about my brother on his birthday.
It's slipping in this direction
Like a pair of tights
The crotch always sagging away from warmth
Towards the ground.
The corners of my lips turn down
When I'm not thinking
And when I am thinking
Of how those laces are loosening
Tied together in some hardship
To help keep us all afloat.
How do we shake off the sinking feeling
And not the thread that binds us?