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
Not everyone can pay for the news. But if you can, we need your support.
Truthout is widely read among people with lower incomes and among young people who are mired in debt. Our site is read at public libraries, among people without internet access of their own. People print out our articles and send them to family members in prison — we receive letters from behind bars regularly thanking us for our coverage. Our stories are emailed and shared around communities, sparking grassroots mobilization.
We’re committed to keeping all Truthout articles free and available to the public. But in order to do that, we need those who can afford to contribute to our work to do so — especially now, because we have just 5 days left to raise $40,000 in critical funds.
We’ll never require you to give, but we can ask you from the bottom of our hearts: Will you donate what you can, so we can continue providing journalism in the service of justice and truth?