Oh, Brother, Why Art Thou?

I love my brother. I don’t blog about him enough, but I should. Really. I have mentioned him before in passing, but he definitely deserves his own post. He deserves a multitude of his own posts. The man is a character.

He is my younger brother, six and a half years my junior. Growing up as children, the gap was too big for us to really share, except for the games boys play at home when nobody is looking. Hide and go seek in a twelve by thirteen bedroom, fort building from sheets and pillows and the infallible Millennium Falcon. Things like that.

However, it was not until he hit his teens that we really started seeing eye to eye. It was during these crucial years that our father passed away, sending the boy into a spiral that scared the shit out of me. He had some rough patches, traveled some seedy roads, until it all came to an abrupt stop. Our entire family spun out of control during this time before the gravity of genetics reeled us back into stable orbits. In that time, my brother went from being that troublesome teen and metamorphed into an outstanding man. He is a person with enough personality and character to fill a novel. A whole series.

Just last night, as my wife and I were strolling the streets of a Cabbage Town (will blog about this place later), I suddenly burst into laughter.

“What?” she asked.
“Nothing, just remembering,”
“Must been funny,”
“Remember when brother was over at the house, talking about that girl?”
“The short one, that nobody knew was short?”
“Yeah, that one.”
“What about her?”
“Well, I just remembered him saying that she wore those giant heels, that she couldn’t even walk in, and she looked like…”
At this point, brother put down his beer, and stood up, curling his hands into his chest to make them smaller. He then inclined his body forward and took one exaggerated step in front of the other, before he turned to us and said [about the girl] “She fuckin’ walks like a T-Rex, in those shoes.”

Tell me, how could you not laugh your ass off at that. He is plagued with things like that, which enliven any situation.

I also have a sister, thirteen years my junior. But that is another post all together. She is a wonderful girl, with whom I share an uncanny understanding. It’s almost a psychic connection, if I was to go all cheesy on you all, which I am not. I love my brother and sister. I draw inspiration from them both, which only makes me sad when I see or hear about siblings that don’t even speak with one another.

The Greatest Man I Will Ever Know.

Well I’m well aware
I know it all too well, I do.
I truly understand
What always in the end,
Comes true.

Your passing left me numb
‘twas a stab to the heart,
It cleaved our home in two
And carved our family apart,
Yes, it’s true.

Never told you, I loved you
Never admitted,
I looked up to you.
Never said that I’d miss you,
Yes, all this is true.

I think back everyday
To what your face would be today,
The things that you would say,
To your children of today,
It’s still true.

You forgave me all my sins,
Never let me down
Showed me trough your grins,
Why I shouldn’t frown,
This is true.

Never told you, I loved you
Never admitted,
I looked up to you.
Never said that I’d miss you,
All of this is still true.

Now I have to wait,
To look upon your face
For the day that I die
To meet you on the other side,
It’ll be true.