49th birthday —
I send myself
a dozen roses

60th birthday
my cat brings me
a dead mouse

60th birthday —
a bird whistles
from the hedge

65th birthday
the curtains in and out
with ocean wind

80th birthday
almost all her potted plants
still in bloom

80th birthday
the wrinkled balloon
next morning

another birthday
her cesarean scar
still tender

another birthday
opening a new bottle
of baby aspirin

another birthday
worn soles
on my dancing shoes

another birthday I blow out the pyre

“big birthday”
beets from the back row
a little woody

birthday alone
one clown
too many

birthday morning
poking in the fireplace
for a few embers

birthday roses
adding the packet
that keeps them alive

busy Italian restaurant —
happy birthday
sung to the wrong table

his thirteenth birthday —
a deeper-sounding squirt
in the toilet bowl

rubbing oil
into the baseball glove
birthday snow

in daddy’s fedora
and her own pink tutu —
sister’s sixth birthday

windswept waves
I spread the icing
on her birthday cake

49th birthday
the first scratch
on my new bifocals

changeable weather;
her birthday the same
as Nostradamus

coconut cream pie —
the birthday candle
starts to slant

96th birthday …
he says it's wonderful
no peer pressure

birthday candles
the sum of years flickers
on gathered faces

eighteenth birthday —
our son graduates
to two syllables

fiftieth birthday …
in my flower bed
pulling weeds

for a moment
her birthday candles
in the dark

I always count
in my native tongue —
Buddha's Birthday

poet’s birthday
we fumble with our words

rainy birthday …
I lower
my standards

rehashing my wish birthday candles