All it takes is one glance to know who you look like, 
And I wish you didn't.  
I stare at you, and I stare at him. 
Looking back at me. 
His green eyes so harsh and so kind, 
So absent minded.  
My brown eyes so harsh and so kind, 
So beat down. 
And the look in his eyes is the same as the look in mine - deadbeat, traumatised, 
And suddenly we're not so different, 
But we are not the same. 
I don't have his long face, or his wiry hair. I don't have the green in his sunken eyes.  
But I have the same lines on my face as he has on his.  
I have his shortened and age-darkened hair. 
I have the same brown of his irises, only darker.  
I have his scars, his anger, his anxiety.  
I share his trauma, his fear, his longing.  
I long for his empathy, his compassion, his bravery. 
I remember his curtness, his expectation, his impatience. 
I know his contempt, his attempts 
To be a better father than the one he got, 
But because of this, I know his failures.  
I know what my sister does not, 
Because I remember more.  
I bear the burden of being older. 
And I hope, and I pray that she does not know his anger, his frustration, his inabilities.  
I hope she only knows his love and his smiles,  
Because he is so good at both.

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A little bit about the author :

Name : Ezran

Pronouns : they/them/he

Age : 18

Location : United Kingdom

I’m an avid reader, writer, photographer and footballer. I’m an undiagnosed (but very obviously) autistic (which means I’m obsessed with sharks and spiderman), I love old indie music and heartbreaking literature-based films (dead poets society hates to see me coming). My poetry inspiration largely comes from Emily Dickinson, my go-to quotes from her being: “hope is the thing with feathers,” ; “I wish you a kinder sea,” and “because I could not stop for Death, He kindly stop for me, the carriage held but just Ourselves and Immortality.”

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