brotherhood / after you left the hospital …

(from the tiny poems series)

let’s have a flashback,
to when our lives seemed carefree,
when our world was simply a walk
or a bike ride toward each weekend
like unwritten stanzas
in an endless poem,

when there was nothing to write about
except liquid summers
and dried-up mornings,
when my beard had no
traces of grey.

let’s remember a time
when I didn’t have to pick you up
from a hospital, when your heartbeat
wasn’t a topic of conversation,
when I never knew what
it felt like to walk along
the edge of fear
around you.

let’s look ahead to a time
when I can sit with my brothers
and reminisce about the
“old school” days as if
they never disappeared,
grey beard and all.