Silent Calendar
I don't know my birthday. No paper has the date. I came into this world alone, Without a marked estate. No mother held me to her chest, No voice pronounced my name, No candle burned to light the dark, No wish became a flame. I watched the others celebrate The day that they were born, While I was left to wander through A silence cold and worn. For years I thought a birthday was A number on a page, A simple mark to measure out The passage of my age. But now I know the quiet truth That hurts the very most: A date is just a ghost of time Without a loving host. It’s not the cake, it’s not the song, Nor clothes they wear to play; It is the heart that looks at you And treasures up the day. And so I walk without a face To anchor where I started, A child who lives inside the space Where memory departed. Yet in the quiet, now I see I do not walk alone- For everyone who goes unloved Has no day of their own.