BIRTHDAY BOYS

JAN. 27, 2008, THE FIRST ANNIVERSARY OF THE BIRTH OF RAPHAEL (LEFT) AND OSCAR, APPEARING HERE IN AN EARLIER PHOTO (WITH THEIR MOTHER, ETHEL) WHEN THE BOYS WERE STILL LITTLE KIDS.

A new poem dedicated to the twins and all the rest of "us":

US AND THEM
by Don Brennan

Who and why are they, needing more and more
behind our backs?
We who have so little know they need
nothing more.

Who and what are they, other than their own
thirst? As though we
weren’t thirsty too.

The one’s who drink so deeply from violent
dreams swim downstream to salt water
cursing the sea.

Why are they and we in this matter of fortune
so distant? Needing one another behind the backs
of one another.

Who and why are they so driven to
conquest? We have lost them
and they, us.