Middle Child

Who knew there was such a thing as Middle Child's Day. There is, and it's today (well, actually yesterday, August 12. I just heard about it today.) You can read about it here. I thought it funny because I'm a middle child. "The middlest," I like to say.) Only in my case, at least in retrospect, it doesn't seem like a bad thing. I wrote a poem to my siblings at Christmas time a year or so ago. I know it's not December, but I'm sharing this poem in honor of Middle Child's Day.

Here is the poem.

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From the Middlest Child

Smack in the middle of a family of six

I’ve a vantage point like no other

Seven years younger that my big sis

And four than my older brother.

When I was just four, the twins came along

Two sweet baby girls in one day.

By seven my love for another was strong

For baby brother had just come to stay.

That was a family for our mom and dad

Six children in all was enough

Joan was fourteen and mature for her age

Duane was eleven and tough.

I, in the middle, was seven years old

Shirley and Sharon almost three

When Larry, blue-eyed with fine hair of gold

Came to fill out our family tree.

My revered sister Joan has been without end

Worshiped and loved with my all.

Duane was my playmate, leader, and friend

I answered to his beck and call.

Twin sisters, the babies we cuddled and fed

Became workmates and playmates for me.

Larry, so sweet in his little bed

I cherished, and he adored me.

Now that were grown and some would say, “old”

(and I guess that’s not far from the truth)

The love we’ve all shared and the trials untold

Bind us in memories of youth.

And so to my family in this Christmas season

I must tell you, with all of my heart

I love you so dearly and for each have a reason

That I wish I we could never more part.

Merry Christmas, Happy New year, as I end this rhyme,

To you, your children, and your grands.

And so may this season of life and of time,

Bring joy as in spirit we join hands.