The Early Years Collection
I've never quite had access to the Poetry Dimension
last august i picked through photo albums and hard drives
to provide my brother’s wife a roadmap
of the hardening and softening of my brother’s face
and the guidestones of his smile throughout the years
i am the youngest of four sons
and in the early 90s when my eldest brother graced
our parents with his birth, my eyes lingered
on the youthful faces and joy in the eyes of my mother and father
something i remember only hazily
“i was 27 when that picture was taken” my mom says
“how old are you these days?”
i’ve never been more aware of my own age
i flip through the years long enough to catch
my second brother’s birth, his curly hair
growing in and the smile spreading across his face
and then my third brother is born
and i stop mistaking one for the other
and i find outings and visitations from great-aunts and grandparents
who now exist only in memory and in glossy print
i flag the vital memories for my brother’s wife and carry on
eventually i am born, the quartet is complete
i find again the photo of my brother whose first instinct seeing
baby me was to ask “can i hold him?”
it was this photo that i held up at his wedding, saying
“if he treats you with the same love instinctive to that ugly child
when he first met an ugly baby
then you are a massively lucky woman”
there is a photo in the wedding album of my brother when that line hit
he’s grinning
the archive ends abruptly soon after i was born
it’s hard, i imagine, to find the time to develop film
when you’ve got four little brats running around
oh well
it was never about me
About the Creator
Steven Christopher McKnight
Disillusioned twenty-something, future ghost of a drowned hobo, cryptid prowling abandoned operahouses, theatre scholar, prosewright, playwright, aiming to never work again.
Venmo me @MickTheKnight
Keep reading
More stories from Steven Christopher McKnight and writers in Poets and other communities.
Make Sure
Make sure you get a job, but that doesn’t pay too much so you can get food stamps and state sponsored health insurance. Otherwise you need $200 per month at least to pay for health insurance so you’re not paying $10,000 when you need an ambulance ride. With insurance, it’ll only be $2000. Isn’t it great? Also, remember when your SSI goes up with the cost-of-living, that your food stamps will decrease because you’re making more income, even though the price of food goes up too, and even staying on the same amount of EBT buys less already. And remember, if you have a disability, you can’t have more than $2000 across your checking and savings account. You can still work though, just don’t make too much or you’ll lose your benefits. It’s expensive to be poor; make sure to save every penny you find on the ground. It’s not taxable, and you’ll need it at the grocery store. And remember that the cheap insurance is barely covering anything, so make sure to not need too many appointments or medications, and to keep your sicknesses down. If you have an issue with your food stamps or Section 8, make sure to take off a day from work (Yes, the day you accounted for to be able to pay rent, that one) so you can go to the housing office and/or social services to wait in line to be scanned for weapons (including crochet hooks, you could dully stab a bitch) to be frustrated at a system to staff that are not paid enough to make excuses for the department they work for. Don’t forget to pay your rent that’s more than half of your income. Don’t forget to report to your pointless job for less than a living wage. If you had a living wage, then you wouldn’t be here at a social services office, now would you? Don’t forget to buy healthy food, even though it is more expensive, and not as fast as fast food, in your already limited free time outside of work, which must also be used for sleep, unless you work two or three jobs, and in that case: best of luck, you fuck! Lastly, life is short, so don’t forget to have fun!
By Ariana GonBon7 days ago in Poets
Fair Exchange, No Robberies
Dark Memoirs - Index There are at least two kinds of people in the world: those who write this half-arsed kind of intro to a story that looks to separate the rare and the norm, and those who realise it's an overused framing device and don't.
By Paul Stewart5 days ago in Chapters
Comments (1)
Wooohooooo congratulations on your honourable mention! 🎉💖🎊🎉💖🎊