![\"\"](\"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Bob-262x300.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He was the first to join me in the ranks of sibling hood<\/p>\n
Two years my junior, we shared holidays and suckers<\/p>\n
We nurtured the two that came after and showed them<\/p>\n
The ways of the world of brothers and sisters.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
As teens we tolerated each other which was par for the course<\/p>\n
He had his interests, I had mine.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour brother\u2019s the one with the fro\u201d they\u2019d say<\/p>\n
That was him, the only white boy at school with a fro<\/p>\n
I guess he realized if he showed up in high school with those tight little pin curls<\/p>\n
He was born with, they\u2019d probably kick his ass or give him swirlys daily<\/p>\n
He changed to survive.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
His announcement to go to college was met with some skepticism by the family<\/p>\n
Mostly due to the fact he nearly flunked out of school<\/p>\n
But he showed us, he showed us all what he was made of, what he could do<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Honored for his achievements at halftime at \u201cThe Shoe\u201d, he almost didn\u2019t go<\/p>\n
He loved what he did, how could that be so special.\u00a0 He was the one that was special.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Things became hard for him and harder still.\u00a0 He tried hard to fight anyway he knew how.<\/p>\n
But it wasn\u2019t enough, even with help, it just wasn\u2019t enough. We rallied around him, remembering the times of ole, the holidays, the hair, the love hidden under all of the typical sibling bullshit.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
We stayed with him days and nights until the call came that he had taken his last breath, peacefully, alone and on his own terms.\u00a0 There would be no more hard times, no more changing to fit in\u2026\u2026.and no more Bob.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Miss you brother!<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
He was the first to join me in the ranks of sibling hood Two years my junior, we shared holidays and suckers We nurtured the two that came after and showed them The ways of the world of brothers and sisters. As teens…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1220,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marathon-poem","category-miscellaneous"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1220"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55041"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55041\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55130,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55041\/revisions\/55130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}