No More Birthdays (Hal Sirowitz) poem

Hal Sirowitz (1949-) is an American poet. He taught children with special needs in New York City before he started competing in poetry slams. In these competitions, poets recite their work and the audience or a panel of judges gives them scores from zero to ten.

BEFORE READING 

Do you ever think your parents overreact to something you say or do?

recite fremføre audience publikum panel of judges dommerpanel jar krukke anniversary årlig fejring marinara sauce tomatsauce

No More Birthdays

No More Birthdays Don’t swing the umbrella in the store, Mother said. There are all these glass jars of spaghetti sauce above your head that can fall on you, & you can die. Then you won’t be able to go to tonight’s party, or go to the bowling alley tomorrow. And instead of celebrating your birthday with soda & cake, we’ll have anniversaries of your death with tea & crackers. And your father and I won’t be able to eat spaghetti anymore, because the marinara sauce will remind us of you.