You were the first to make me smile,
I'm told. Descending from suspicion -
Your bedroom staircase above -
You accepted me then. I have
Passed ivy fences by that house
When striving to Magic with you.

Amigo! More than brother; ours
Being found on humour – better
Than most siblings we know. In fact,
You were ingesting first substances
To drop the edges, were you not,
When I stumbled into that? You

And him and I – godless trinity
Of wrenched enlightenment. He quenched me;
You kept me sane with jokes, if and
When you could. You never browbeat,
Never boast of any graces.
Right and wrong are solid to you.

Yet somehow you tread easily
Between seriousness and love -
innit, though? Forming yourself
Happily through your work and home -  
Though home is mother's, it's yours too.
How light, the heart that binds you

In marriage. I should have forged this
For that; unsure how to cast you
In your own plot, I bottled out.
Brother, friend, joker – which face are
You today? Now the heath is sprung
With new tender lavender. You

Shock me. You were the first to make
Me cry at lunch, when you gave
Your speech. You invoked the dead,
Charged glasses and glasses, you
Called upon no weary gods; danced
Into shackledom with Dad beside you.