Poetry 1

for my brother

It's Christmas Eve, three years
after that night I went
to pick you up in Virginia

Driving while drunk, you totaled
your shiny green Mazda 626
when it leaped the shoulder,
gliding through a hall of trees

That Christmas morning I slept
in the waiting room while you
were processed and released
from the detention center

You were always teaching me
ambition's an extreme need to go
beyond what this life offers

We were always bailing
each other out of something

like in fifth grade, when
I was spared beat downs from
older boys since you were cool
with their little brothers

We were closer then, but
you're a different person
now - a vegan who answers
to a Hebrew name,

who no longer spends
his holidays with family

Tsaahdiel, one who's
been restored -

the believer who's buried
himself for someone new

Tsaahdiel, righteous one -

diligent servant so content with
where he is with his new life

my distant brother, far from the
warrior spirit of your former name,
who once had a lion's heart