we are immortal

It's my best friend's birthday  
and I sent her a text  
saying  
"happy I'm-glad-you're-not-dead day"  
because her Peter Pan complex  
demands I not remind her  
that every year she's getting older  
 
And her inner child might be  
eternally switched on  
but she somehow does adulting  
better than me  
though we both wish  
we could just say "fuck it all"  
and run off to Neverland  
where responsibilities go to die  
and imagination is free to rule  
 
Her complex probably isn't helped  
by the fact she also eats like a child  
and it's a running joke  
that she eats "bland and boring"  
when the reality is she has  
a sensory processing disorder  
 
She laughed her wild bubbling laugh  
when I said my four year old eats a  
broader ranger of food than her  
after she asked the waitress  
is she could have every flavour  
that wasn't soy sauce removed from  
the noodles and tofu dish  
she ordered last time we caught up  
 
But that's my favourite thing about her  
her quickness to laugh  
at literally anything  
and everything  
and there were times when we were kids  
when I thought she might be clinically insane  
because she just couldn't stop  
and people would deliberately  
pick on her in high school just to hear her laugh  
 
She laughs through the best and worst  
of times  
and sometimes I wish  
I was more like her  
genius smart, morbidly funny, super weird  
and un-serious in all the right ways  
 
It's my best friend's birthday  
and I sent her a text  
saying  
"happy I'm-glad-you're-not-dead day"  
because her Peter Pan complex  
demands I not remind her  
that every year she's getting older  
 
For one more year we get  
to be baby faced immortals  
untouched by time  
and next year we'll do it all again