Happy Birthday, Stranger
For 11 years we shared the same
apartments, houses, cardboard boxes
parents that only sometimes wanted
to be there —
we shared the same
rolling of the eye
the tip toe quiet
the bitten bottom lip

Every time I remember you
I remember it all
I sometimes remember
that you don’t like to
remember the way I do

Like me , you’ve built
your own history
Like me, you’ve moved
on and away
Like me, you are
an only child,
my brother