Birthday Card..................................Keagan O’Riley

Birthday Card

Keagan O’Riley

It was winter when you came into the world A cold January meeting A joyful winter greeting Is something we have in common

I still have the cards you sent that always wished me happiness

Strange, how I could never guess these would be more precious than any other gift I’d get

It’s funny, now this simple piece of paper painted Tainted with all these happy colors and all these memories of you

It’s funny, how the greatest joke I’ve ever seen is one that was never meant to be

I trace your wishes with a careful hand, remembering that summer day Remembering the things I’d say And I wish I had known to say more.

I wish I had known.

22

Inscape 2021

Then again, maybe knowing is a curse Like the tragicomic memories you abandoned here A missed punchline that you left behind and never bothered to deliver

I let this paper fall away, Slipping Drifting Dancing like a lonely snow flake through the air.

And I remember it was winter.

It was winter when you came into the world. A magical January greeting A beautiful winter meeting Was something we had in common.

Fitting, I think how it was summer when you whispered goodbye world And there was no one there to hear it.

23