Brother.

Mischief sparkles in his eyes
Like the stars he forgets to look up to
Hes too busy with the tick tick ticking of his tablet
Fully absorbed in virtual worlds where
He plays the hero I know
He will one day grow up to be.
And cameras make him strike poses that
goodness knows where he knows them from
His confidence grows with the inches he marks off on my shoulder.
Hes older but I still remember the days he was no bigger than a loaf of bread
His head no bigger than my hand
And now he stands here, warmed up and ready to
run with the wind into the future,
Determined to forget the days when he couldnt even walk
and everything that glittered was still gold.
Young one, slow down
Its not all that fun being old and
You've got a long way to go before you're ready to hang up
That Batman T- shirt and Jokers grin
You're still invincible and you have yet to begin
Your journey.
But he doesn't know that yet.
Hes still working too hard and playing too little
His job as a son is just paying too little
And chocolate isn't everything but its pretty high up on the list
Maths is starting to have letters and its hard to get the gist of it
His mustache wont grow fast enough
And his patience is wearing thin
There's a world of independence that hes waiting to dive in.
And its hard to find a thing to do
when his sisters have all left home
But he doesn't miss them a single bit
he's just fine on his own;
Or so he says.
But there are teary farewells in airport lounges
Where we know that as soon as we take off,
Life will fly by again,
until we land once more on common grounds
to find what remains as common ground,
And how much closer we are to that moment when
I can no longer kiss you in public
and call you my baby brother.