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
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