You know, when I think back about Rhode Island
It’s pretty simple
Cold coke on a hot day
Sitting on a playground in Pawtucket
Watching my older brother talk to girls
He could flirt with three girls at once
And all three of them
Would think they were the one
That was going to be his girlfriend
But my brother couldn’t remember anyone’s name
Girls or boys
He just didn’t have that kind of memory
He loved whoever he was talking to
In that moment
And so he was one of those people
Who always had a crowd around him
When they sent him to Iraq
We had a going away party that was so packed
People ended up out on the sidewalk
In the street even
He came back half a year later
But I was gone
Exiled, not allowed to come home
To see him
They didn’t send him back in a wooden coffin
They sent him back in a body
With a mind in his head
That worked about as well
As a bike with no wheels
A coffin would have kinder
When I got the letter saying I could go home
His bed was the first place I stopped
He looked at me
He smiled
He grabbed my hand
But he couldn’t remember my name
I could see him getting upset about it
But I just brought his hand up to my face
And said—
‘You know me? You
know me, right?’
And he nodded
And that was it
That was all I wanted
To come home to
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