When’s My Birthday?
I never can remember
if my birthday’s in September
or in January, August, or July.
Or it could be in December,
or October, or November.
I’ve forgotten when it is.
I don’t know why.
And it may be on the seventh,
or the third, or the eleventh,
though I know that sounds a little bit absurd.
Plus it might be a Sunday,
or a Thursday, or a Monday,
on the seventeenth, or thirtieth, or third.
Now, while some might find this vexing,
or confusing, or perplexing,
I make lemons into lemonade this way:
Since I never can remember
if my birthday’s in September,
I just celebrate my birthday every day.
— Kenn Nesbitt
Copyright © 2024. All Rights Reserved.
Reading Level: Grade 5
Topics: Birthday, Holiday Poems, Other Holidays
Poetic Techniques: Idioms, Lyric & Dramatic Poems, Rhyme Schemes
Word Count: 118
About This Poem
I recently had a “half birthday,” which falls in August since my real birthday is in February. Because of this, I was thinking about writing a half-birthday poem. By the time I started working on it, it was already September. The line “I never can remember if my birthday’s in September” popped into my head because September rhymes so nicely with “remember”—and also with December and November. I liked the way that line sounded, so I created this poem with that idea as the starting point.
When thinking about half birthdays, it also occurred to me that since it might be fun to celebrate your birthday twice a year, it could be even more fun to celebrate it three or four times a year, or even more often.
Oh, and by the way, the rhythm of this poem is the same as one of my all-time favorite poems, “In Praise of Llamas” by Arthur Guiterman. It was fun to use that familiar rhythm to explore the idea of never quite remembering my birthday—and deciding how often to celebrate it!
Use This Poem
Would you like to use this poem in your classroom? Would you like permission to reprint, record, recite or broadcast this poem, or set it to music? Please click on one of the following links for permissions and reprint rights information: