(Lucky) 17

“Happy birthday, kid, unwrap your gift. But your dismissal wasn’t on my list.”

It’s that time of year again.
Your birthday is coming up fast.
You would have been seventeen.
Look who’s getting old now.
Isn’t that what you used to say to me?

Six years have gone by but your absence is hitting hard this time around.
I was the same age when we lost you for good.
‘Lucky number 17’ is it?
Doesn’t seem so ******* lucky to me.

Is it strange that I always knew something tragic was going to happen in my life?
Why did it have to be you losing yours?

“Separate me from pain, I can’t live like this. Take it away.”