Surviving Twin - Loudon Wainwright III

Last week I attended a family affair &

A few remarked upon my recent growth of facial hair

You look just like your father did

With that beard someone said

I answered back I am him even though my old man’s dead

I didn’t want to be him will at first I did

When I loved & looked up to him as a little kid

He sent me to his old school I was a numeral with his name & he gave me this

gold signet ring

And he wore one just the same

And I guess that I believed him & probably it was true

When he told me I was just like him

That’s what some fathers do

But a father’s always older and my dad was rather tall

Who says size doesn’t matter, he was big & I was small

I needed to be big enough to be someone someday

& I learned I had to beat him & that was the only way

I learned I had to fight him, my own flesh & bone & kin

Buyt I felt I was ust like him can a man’s son be his twin

First we fought for my mother, that afforded little joy

When he left she was heart broken

& I was still their little boy

But I started to get bigger & to win the ugly game

When I made a little money & I got a bit of fame

& I saw how this could wound him

Yes this could do the trick &

If I made it big enough I could kill him off quick

But how can you murder someone

In a way that they don’t die

I didn’t want to kill him, that would be suicide