Contributor Series 11: On Birthdays
Around Your Birthday
By Lucile Barker
Early April, even late March,
you start getting nervous,
avoiding old friends who know the date,
hide away … love, you can’t avoid
your birthday.
You fear the candled cake,
waiters gathered round,
the cold stares of diners
trying to guess your age
or even worse, singing along
a jollity enforced only by time,
aging frightened cave men scared of the dark,
pushing it back with tiny waxed flames.
I celebrate mine,
laugh in time’s cruel face,
spill hot wax on him,
scorn your fear when you hide away.
Love, you can’t avoid your birthday.
Lucile Barker’s poem Sorceress appeared here in April 2012.