My brother frequently picked on me

Last week he even ditched me with his friends,

All older by several years,

And I waited an hour at the park

For nothing

I wanted the chance to get even with him,

Maybe even to tell my parents

That he was seeing some girl

All those afternoons he said

He was doing extra credit at school –

If I really got mad, that is

But I never did

Because he, my brother,

Played cards with me and laughed a lot

And taught me football and made sure

Nobody every pushed me around

Except him

Yesterday morning he shared his porridge

With me even though he was hungrier, and bigger

Naturally I wanted to kill him

A hundred times a day for teasing

But not the way the smart bomb did

They told me it was a smart bomb

That made a mistake

I wonder whoever made it so smart,

Somebody a million miles away,

Did he have a brother

Who put a hand on his shoulder to squeeze it

As they walked home from school

For no reason at all

My parents couldn’t answer that question,

My parents, I can hardly recognise them

We’ve been ditched but there’s not even

Waiting