Birthdays in the Park
FROM THE ONLINE CHAPBOOK FLAMINGO PARK
Birthdays in the Park
Miriam Levine
The same parties on so many Sundays,
it seems time’s an endless loop, the same
balloons in bunches, pink and blue set
at intervals on the long table, the cake
frosted in white, swirled letters
of a name, pink and blue those rosettes.
In identical dresses with lace collars
three girls off by themselves smiling
with closed mouths after they’ve whispered
comments about each passerby.
The familiar favors. (I used to
wish for temp tattoos and red crayons.)
They’re so young, these aunts,
uncles, cousins, fathers, mothers—
one chatting with I-don’t-know-who
as she nurses the newborn.
Where are the old people like me?
Can it be true, that ancient promise of eternal return?
Flamingo Park
Miriam Levine
2026
Flamingo Park is Miriam Levine’s gift to you. The setting of this online chapbook is the Flamingo Park neighborhood of Miami Beach, Florida. The themes, for the most part, are love, death, joy—laughter and tears—the longstanding themes of lyric poetry.