Happy Birthday, Kanaki.
I’m two days late,

But

I will turn twenty-two
On August fifteenth
As you should have turned
On August eleventh
Sixty-three

I would like to think that you simply
Escaped
And found
A new life, a new family
A new journey
To celebrate sixty-three.

A big number —
It’s been many years
Since you disappeared in
Eighty-six;
then just thirty-three.

I did not expect you
To impact me as you did
Yet here I am –
Heart heavy as I think
About sixty-three.

I’m two days late, but
Happy Birthday, Kanaki.