My sister, mom, dad and friend Kevin at my 2007 birthday shindig.
Here’s a poem I wrote in 2007 after celebrating my birthday with friends and family at Thali, our favorite Indian restaurant in Rochester.
Birthday
by Jason Crane
This is my birthday poem:
Stuffed full of Chicken Makhani,
Squeezing the plastic skull
With its bulging brains.
This is my birthday poem:
Grumpy-faced children
Fight off the smiles
That take over their faces.
This is my birthday poem:
Moving from one end of the
Long table to the other,
A timeline with forks and knives.
This is my birthday poem:
A box of old feelings
Hidden away in the closet,
Buried with new garments.
This is my birthday poem:
Pedaling slowly to Barrington Street,
My young son beside me,
Dodging the potholes.
This is my birthday poem:
Enchiladas and rice
And a dusty courtyard;
Beyond — and old bookstore.
This is my birthday poem:
“Daddy wants jam and bread.”
And knees in my back
Keep me awake in the small hours.
This is my birthday poem:
Tucked in, supine,
Balancing a notebook
On my stuffed belly.
(September 2007)
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