Lines Written for a Fortieth Birthday
By Shane McCrae
We must love one another or die.
—W. H. Auden, “September 1, 1939” (original version)
We must love one another and die.
—W. H. Auden, “September 1, 1939” (revised version)
The joke you hear today you’ll hear
Again next year again each ev-
ery birthday after for the first
Second time you’ve turned twenty-five
Which you would rather die than do
Again when Auden saw the lie
Or became and nobody likes it
You must get used to the joke and die
Source: Poetry (October 2024)