Best Stepbrother Poems
Here you are, only twelve, at our kitchen table.
Such a carrot top you were! Strangers used to think
you were our red-head mother’s natural son.
And here’s that photo you took of me at college.
Though you’re not in it, how could I ever forget
it was you in front of me that snapped that shot?
For I’m laughing and so glad you came to see me!
In this one, all ten of us are in the back yard
dressed in our Sunday best - our first big reunion!
I’m nearly 30; just look at my silly perm!
Folks still mistake me for Dori in this picture!
Look how Mom and Thea - for once - are smiling!
You’re standing behind me, in a lovely grey suit,
only 32 and almost out of law school!
Here from more recent pictures, this shows a rare time
we were joined, but sadly, for Dad‘s funeral.
You‘re not in this one, Dale . . . nor in any others.
That picture in our back yard was to be the last.
My dear stepbrother, the best man I ever knew -
Taken from us so young. . . you remain beloved.
Written 10/9/13
Used today March 24, 2021 for
A Meaningful Poem - Poetry Contest
Sponsor: Constance La France
Dear Dale, so loved were you
that even now, thirty-nine years later,
you live inside the dreams
of your siblings. I suppose this to be true
since I, at least, have had you in my dreams.
Dear Dale, you came to live with me and my sisters
when I was halfway through my childhood.
You with your freckles and reddish hair
and your spirit of enthusiasm,
inspiring others with your love of the Lord.
Dear Dale, although a stepbrother to me,
you were my one true brother in this life
who stayed up late at the kitchen table
sharing fun stories with me and the others
who liked to spend the night simply conversing.
Dear Dale, you’d be surprised at things today.
So few people just sit and enjoy each other’s company.
You though were a firecracker and a social butterfly!
Loving to participate, you encouraged everyone
to partake of the good clean fun you were a part of.
Dear Dale, you went abroad to bring the Gospel
to anyone you found who would hear God’s word.
Then home you came and studied many years at college,
nearly graduating from your law school
until death came to you from out of nowhere.
Dear Dale, we lost you when a drunken fool
ran over you as you sat so innocently
late one night on the curb of a solitary street.
Your death was instantaneous. Then and there,
I’m sure your soul flew straightaway to heaven.
Dear Dale, although of course you had your flaws,
to me you were a perfect example of
the way a man should have integrity.
Abruptly you were lost to death, but we will reunite.
“Only the good die young” echoes in my mind when I think of you.
Jan. 22, 2023
for The Loved and Lost Poetry Contest of Regina McIntosh
A combined family.
A tricky situation.
One I have managed to avoid and gladly
I have no idea how they do it.
Each thinking the other one’s children
are spoiled.
Keeping their mouths shut
or worse, taking over too soon.
A tricky situation.
One I have gladly avoided
What can I say about my brother Sweety?
He's sweet
He's kind
He's loving
He's funny
But most of all
He's wise
So thank you Sweety for teaching me
How to live life fully
So I wouldn't grow up to be a bully. ;)
NOTE: This is about my stepbrother, who has been there for me since I was born. I wrote this when I was about 12, acknowledging how sweet he is how much I adored him from since little. We actually NEVER call each other by our real names. Just Sweety. Lol!
All is not as it seems
No not any bad dreams
For this is so much worse
For I am the one living this curse.
This house comes alive at night
It is enough to give you a fright!
You see the ghosts in all their glory.
Makes you wonder of their story.
There is the ghostly two
That love to scare you.
They close all the doors
And will open all the drawers.
They make the lights go off and on
They will do this from dusk 'til dawn.
Oh but do not think that once it is light
That you are free of ghostly blight.
There is the gent who gets you trouble
When he causes the bath to overlow with bubble.
Or when he knocks the plant on the floor
It is your tush that Mom makes very sore.
The one in the basement gives the adults the creeps
But us kids he must have thought of as sheeps
For there he let us have our play
But the grown ups there was hell to pay.
For our stepbrother would never tell
Of what horrors he saw or of what hell.
But you hear the ghost loudly cackle
Whenever Jake says his fear he will tackle.
Winter comes in with a burst
But each snow fall that is first
You will see footprints on the ground
And the house they go around.
But no one has left the house
Not even that little brown mouse.
No footprints upon the porch or any step.
We all know as we just look and say "Yep."
But Harry is the best
He is better than the rest.
For he is there to protect.
He is easy to detect.
Just follow the practical jokes
He loves to pull on folks.
Like the one very unusual time
My socks appeared at the drop of a dime.
The ghosts do come out at night
And love to give you a devilish fright.
They love to send you lots of chills
For your screams to them are thrills.
I love this house and yet
Even with Harry I do so fret.
For the others can only be held at bay
For so long before we ALL pay.
Sometimes I catch myself defending you in my head, thinking “We were only kids…”
And then I sobered up and kick started myself into a foreseen realization.
You were 12.
I was 6.
You had no right.
Sex?
I wasn’t sure exactly what it was.
And although I may be a virgin I know damn well that THAT was not what was supposed to happen.
No, not when your six years old.
No, not when we’re alone in a tent together.
It’s cold, and nobody is home, and your hands only move one direction-
South.
Please. Stop. I don’t like this game.
The words blend together like a new definition of pain.
Eyes welling.
I may not know what’s right but I know what’s wrong.
….
To this day I second guess myself, and justify what you did to me and more importantly what you forced me to do. It churns my stomach to know that your going to be a father. We used to be so close, and I cherished that. But now I know it was just a lie. A lie that you forced me to keep. Concealed behind virgin lips, knowing that you were someone I had no choice but to please. You are my stepbrother.
I understand the term now.
Because it’s going to take multiple steps to get over the abuse, manipulation, and pain that you put me through.
On the outside the scars may have healed and faded but on the inside I have your song on replay.
Every jab. Every motion. Every secret. Every whisper.
It saddens me to think that our little “situation,” was the only thing I had to compare to a “real,” relationship.
Take a breath.
Numb the pain.
Ease your mind.
Start again.
Steps to get over my “brother.”
One of the most influential and inspiration people I’ve ever known
Unexpectedly had his life stolen from him at 2:00 a.m as a
Random drunk driver struck him as he sat on a residential street’s curb.
Fated to die before reaching his full potential was
A young man almost finished with law school.
My remarkable red-haired stepbrother Dale was eleven and
I was eight when his father married my mother.
Little had I known of many great male role models by that point in time,
Yet after meeting Dale, I got to have a personal hero.
Loving, outgoing, smart, talented and enthusiastic was he.
Every time a friend or I needed help, he was there for us.
Gregarious too, he and I could chat for hours at the kitchen table during
Evenings that sometimes melded easily into midnight.
Never was he unkind, disrespectful or spiteful
During the twenty years I was to know him.
Dutiful to the church we attended, he served a mission because
As a believer in Christ, he wanted desperately to please the Lord.
Life put trials in his path; I believe God wanted Dale back in heaven.
Even now, I count him as the soul I hope to meet first beyond the veil.
Robbers in their den:
The harshest of men,
In all ten,
Their boss, terrible Ben!!
Stepbrother of as terrible Ken!!
Now, not with his pistol but confusing pen
Their next operation indicating 'when'
And much persuaded to give it a name
One wouldn't have guessed, nursing mother hen
For his having once favored 'operation wren'
She likes green so well, her whole house is one color.
Isn’t that boring? I ask her annoyed cousin’s stepbrother.
It seems that she’s expanded her horizons, added yellow now.
I see a green elephant, green horse, green dogs and green cow.
Where is the yellow? I ask. Is it in another room?
I think it’s behind the sink in the form of an old straw broom.
And there’s a yellow duckie in the tub, someone said.
I wish in this house she would add some touches of red.
I look inside my photo album
seeing fading photographs in black and white.
There is one of me riding on a trike.
Oh, there’s another. Gosh, I look a fright.
My front teeth have two spaces
where some new teeth soon would grow.
I look so plain with hair cropped short.
Oh, the things back then I did not know!
Things about my future, my children and my spouse.
How innocent I was – life was still brand new.
These photographs – like me back then – did not use to be
worn with age; they were photos I could clearly see.
Here’s one of my father. Mental illness stole his joy.
That’s why he looks sad.
Mother had to leave him; back to the farm she went.
He was the dad I never really had.
Here’s one of my sisters (we four the Miller girls),
and the eldest one am I.
Like this picture, we are also fading.
Who will be the first of us to die?
That’s a question I would not have pondered
in my fresh and younger days.
The path ahead of us which seemed long
is now for all of us in autumn’s phase.
And here’s a photo of my red-haired stepbrother.
I loved him so; his name was Dale.
Only the good die young, and he was very good.
We lost dear Dale -he’s now beyond the veil.
Fading photographs like most of these
still have a lot of time to last.
I wonder if anyone will ever view them
long after I and those I love have passed.
Sinewy strong sturdy Seth had his pick of girls
I never date them, he said, if they have any curls.
He broke his own rule when he met my stepmother.
She had gorgeous curls like his youngest stepbrother
We never figured out why he broke his own rule
But handsome hunky Seth is nobody’s fool
He married up, married wise, wealthy and well
They are totally happy as far as we can ever tell
She was a lithe and lively flexible acrobatic cat.
She was doing exercises when her bench went splat.
It’s a worn-out pumpkin, it was time, said her mother.
It is November sixth, added her annoyed stepbrother.
But I thought it would stay forever, she said.
She had fallen on her tushy and landed on her head.
You can have another one next Halloween.
Now stop having a fit, they both said to the teen.
Robbers in their den:
The harshest of men,
In all ten,
Their boss, Terrible Ben!!
Stepbrother of as terrible Ken!!
Now, not with his pistol but confusing pen,
Their next operation indicating 'When'
And much persuaded to give it a name
One wouldn't have guessed, Nursing Mother Hen
For his having once favored 'Operation Wren'