It’s my birthday

Today I am eighteen

I don’t feel eighteen

I feel eighty

Today I’m officially an adult

But I’ve been an adult since I learned to walk

I never had a caregiver

Someone to make the decisions for me

I was the one who held your hair when you were hungover and vomiting in the toilet

I was the one who carried narcan in case you overdosed

I was the one who took care of kid after kid you had with random men

I never had anyone wipe the blood off my knee

When I fell and scraped it in the sidewalk

I never had anyone tell me that I was a good kid

That I was going to be something in life

I had to do that

That is the only thing you taught me

How to not be a child

So happy birthday to me