A Recipe for a Birthday

1. An age, reluctantly announced
2. Several friends, but not enough
3. A cake, that you’ll eventually throw up
4. A necklace, you’ll never wear
5. A laugh, in unison

Choose a room, one larger than the number of people you know.

Assort your people based upon how well you know them.

Serve them cake for about 20 minutes (at least one person will decline.)

Quietly tell them they should have left their diet at home.

Open a gift, pretend you don’t already have it,

shuffle your friends and hope that the joker lands on top.

Somebody cheers!

They are aware that you survived something.

Take several photos, at least one with a smile.

Post them one day later.

Accept birthday wishes for the next five business days.

Contemplate all of the birthday cards relatives forgot

to send you twelve years ago

and where those cards went when they died.

Everybody sings

or something.

Originally published in the 2020 Poetry Marathon Anthology.