My brother, Richard, suddenly passed away on July 13, 2018
while out in his yard pushing a small lawn fertilizer. It was a hot muggy day.
He just collapsed. Age 67. He was the fourth of five sons and 2 girls my parents had. I was the third.
My two older brothers, Chuck (died age 60 of ALS) and Bobby (died age 2 of accidental poisoning), died years ago. I am the oldest living sibling, along with brother number 5, Joe, and my sisters Mary and Laurie.
As I said in the poem, Richard (we called him Dick most of his life, but in later years he said he's no longer a Dick) was the last one we'd expected to die when he did. He was small, thin, athletic, and full of energy. Here I am; overweight, high blood pressure, bad cholesterol, diabetic, and 70. Go figure.

This poem is an Atrina.
The ATRINA form was invented by Keith Metcalf Drew of the AllPoetry website.
A stanzaic poem of 18 lines, consisting of 3 quatrains and a sestet.

It is isosyllabic. Each line has 8 syllables.
Rhymed: AaaA BbbB CccC AaBbCc where the capital letters indicate refrain lines.
(AaaABbbBCccCAaBbCc)

The first and last lines in each verse are exactly the same.
The third line in each verse is of similar wording to the second line or reversed. However, it is preferred to use the same words but reversed.
Then when you have written the three verses, the fourth verse consists of the first lines (or first 2 lines) from each of the three verses.

This picture is one I took of Richard in his back yard, 2015.

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