# 19



## Smith (Aug 10, 2017)

Blow out the candles;
I wish this is my last wish.
Birthday irony.


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## H.Brown (Aug 10, 2017)

Happy birthday Kyle.


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## Smith (Aug 10, 2017)

It was actually last month. If only it'd been happy.

Thanks Brown.


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## jpatricklemarr (Aug 10, 2017)

Quick as the breath that put to death the flame?


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## Smith (Aug 11, 2017)

jpatricklemarr said:


> Quick as the breath that put to death the flame?



I'm still here.


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## ned (Aug 11, 2017)

interesting Smithy -

is about a death wish not to see another birthday
or to be so fortunate in the next year that the narrator would wish for nothing? (rhetorical)

works either way....
Ned


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## Smith (Aug 11, 2017)

Exactly. Thanks Ned! 

-Kyle


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## Smith (Sep 25, 2017)

It's been brought to my attention (via feedback on another site) that the piece can be interpreted in a way that I, the writer, had not foreseen.

It could be "perceived as illustrating... the natural desire for immortality." Or in other words, to stop getting older, and have no more birthdays counting-down to your demise in a figurative sense.

This has reminded me of one reason why I began writing in first place. The magical way that, as in this example, a poem can either be legitimately interpreted as both the wish of a suicidal individual, and a dying person's wish for immortality. I am grateful to have stumbled upon it so cluelessly as I've done here.

The poem may have been my creation, with my own agenda, but this goes to show that at the end of the day it is its own, living thing.


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## Phil Istine (Sep 25, 2017)

I don't recall seeing this thread or poem before.
Had I seen it, I might have wondered if it was a throwback to an anti-war song that was around in the 80s..
The song was actually called "19" and was about the average age of an American who fought in the Vietnam war.
I didn't think much of the song musically, but its message was hard-hitting - and parts of your poem could certainly be linked with that message.
It is viewable on youtube. I haven't linked to it as some may have issues with the imagery, but it's on there.


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## Smith (Oct 15, 2017)

Can't say I'm familiar with the song but I'll check it out. Thanks for reading Phil.


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## aj47 (Oct 15, 2017)

Wish for no more wishes ... or no more birthdays ... or no more candles?  I saw a reply to this in *Activity*(thanking someone for reading) and so read your post, but not yet the intervening replies. 

What would happen if you had _n _wishes (where _n _> 1) and you used your first to wish for no more?  You bent my mind ....  anyway, I hope your birthday was adequate to your needs.  And that whichever way you wished, it worked out well enough to suit.

ETA:  Ha!  I brought my ... baggage with me, too, when I read it.  Thinking like a programmer.  I'm going up to *Like*​ it now.


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## Smith (Oct 15, 2017)

Haha thanks Annie. And that's a good question. I myself took a course of computer programming in high-school and that was when I realized video game development was definitely not for me. At least not the coding part, anyway.

Although I didn't mind web design and HTML, a different class I took junior year.


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