The Brothers That Never Were

What pain was felt on a rocky bed!
The pain of a lost one I know so well.
A child who laid his head on my breast,
A face so sweet, and so lost in the past.
I hold my brother in my arms,
In shaking embrace, I sob into his ears,
"Do you remember the child who grew up with us,
The boy who used to worship us,
The smile, the warmth, the smell
Of that boy who was a brother to us?"
He nods in tears, as we cling in pain,
And in sorrow a flood breaks out from us.
And then on a rocky bed, I return to this world,
In the trembling memory of brothers that never were.

-Samuel Godfrey George