In leiu of a blog post
Two Young Brothers
Everybody needs a good apple butter tester.
Someone to pull the bread apart,
Squish it between their fingers,
Exclaim their review in shrieks and not words with both hands thrust into the air,
Press leftovers onto their face for later.
Everyone needs a good bubble blower.
Someone to swirl the stick just right in the bottle,
To look through the sticky rainbowed film,
To exhale with just the right force to airlift magic across the yard,
To release happiness that floats down to those below.
Everyone needs a good running partner,
Or before that, a good crawling partner,
Someone to come and meet you where you are,
Someone to come alongside you and move at your own pace,
And help you get from one place to another.
Everyone needs a friend down in the grass,
To get dirt on their hands,
To relay the feeling of soft blades tickling their skin,
Or the smush of sinking earth depressing beneath them,
To keep them grounded.
Just as everyone needs a friend in the heights,
To survey the blue and whites of the sky,
To look beyond the limits of ceilings and gravity,
To imagine the rush of being a bird or Buzz Lightyear cutting across space.
To inspire them beyond where a casual walk might take them.
Eveyone needs that moment,
That moment where you gather waiting with your brood of cousins,
And all your aunts and uncles,
To see the fifth of the litter shiny and new.
Who will look a little like you.
Everyone needs a good reason to wear a uniform,
To look like they belong somewhere to some group of people,
To take on a joint challenge and chase a shared destiny,
To celebrate moving and running outside in the fresh, clean air,
To taste their first bits of victory or defeat.
Everyone needs a good regular, everyday reason to unplug,
To sit on a porch, sun beating down and wind askew,
To overlook the real heart of their life’s work,
And pay tribute to the task of substance in front of them,
To raising a pair of best friends,
Two people linked today and forever by the word brother.
