A Calendar Day
Oct 23 2023
There is no sensible reason
that the birthday we share
would explain this affinity.
After all, neither believes in astrology,
we haven't much in common,
and the odds are hardly improbable.
365 to 1, to be exact;
among all the billions
really not so much.
So, are we so desperate for connection
wherever we get it
that a calendar day
circled in red
would seem so significant?
Same hospital, same year
would mean even more.
Did our mothers labour together?
Were we slapped by the same hand,
our first breath
taken at the same time?
Were we switched at birth
and lived the other's life
in place of our rightful one?
And if the single minute between us
had put us either side of midnight
what difference would it make?
A lot, I suspect.
Because there’s nothing mystical there,
not when one day apart
might as well be 6 months.
Not when like attracts like
and we are suspicious of “the other”.
And not, as Freud once said
when the narcissism of small difference
looms so large
in human affairs.
So we continue to share this day
and an inexplicable bond
since we first met.
Growing old together
and toasting each other
right up to the end,
wondering who will be left
drinking alone.
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