This is my most recently published poem. I wrote it when my younger brother was about to become older than our older brother was when he died. I was pleased to find “Survivor’s Review,” which features work by authors I admire, like Louise DeSalvo. I made some changes based on comments by peers in Baron Wormser’s poetry workshop that I attended through Fairfield University’s MFA program, and other changes at the suggestion of “Survivor’s Review” editor Sheree Kirby. I had liked the piece when I first wrote it, but I think the changes made it better.
Photo credit: Ann McLelllan Lardas
Beautiful sentiments! This is a subject that I’ve thought of before – the passage of time, of relative ages of siblings and relatives, and the intersection of those with death. And yet there is something about the tone of it that says: Yet just two of us are left on earth, we’re all still alive. As my wife can attest, I’ve never really “gone for” poetry, but it’s not that I consider it beneath me. Rather, it’s way too high for me. I couldn’t consider writing it, and I seem to only engage with it when I know the author. Like in this case.