You both achieved a golden age this week
Within days of each other
And although I know where you both live
I saved a bundle on birthday cards

Still, the ironies do intrigue me:
Both of you German, both from Pennsylvania
Both of you carrying baggage from families
Dali couldn’t paint in his worst clock melting nightmares

Both from the same class in school;
Each remembering the other with a smile;
Having smoked a joint or ten together in the girls’ room
And never admitting you did anything more illegal than a beer

My fault, that last one.
I was, after all, a fussy, no-drugs kind of guy
Who had watched too many neighborhood crows
Fall dead from the overhead wires and decided
There really wasn’t any better living through chemistry

And so you both indulged me, although
One of you said I would have made a great head
But in your next breath you admitted you were happy
I didn’t take you up on the offer.

In the end, you both preferred me sane.

Falling in love with both of you was a mutual thing.
I wasn’t in it alone, not then,
And I’m hoping you both carry
Some snapshot memory
Of my better ways and days

Life being the river that it is
We floated down different streams;
I followed one of you in my canoe
While wondering what tramp steamer
Was wandering the trackless oceans with the other

Karma got us all, in the end,
Although mine hit early enough
So I could lick my wounds and cover
Up the scars. For you two, the vicissitudes
Were like hurricanes that blew in when
Your houses already rocked on spindly legs

It’s been years, but I still think about you both

One an Aries, one a Pisces. One a ram, the other
A fish. One a lot more sensual than the other,
And the other a whole lot sager than all of us. I wonder
If you leaf through the yellowed pages of a yearbook
Every now and again and remember
When I set you against each other
With an evil compare and contrast.

Just so you know: I loved one of you far more than the other
But wonder how the less loved one is doing
In my sweeter, quieter dreams.
One of you set the table for the other
But both of you made my life
Worth living, and I don’t regret a minute.

03/29/2013

Author's Note: Happy birthday, ladies

Posted on 03/29/2013
Copyright © 2024 Ken Harnisch