Hidden Track (third draft)

NOTE: Thanks to louiserobertson for helping think through this.

Hidden Track

a dreadful fate
would be to wake up someday
and find i’ve been reborn
as a pop song.

worse yet, born into a family
of pop songs.
(worse again, born a twin.
it would be intolerable
to look to my left
and find myself.)

i’d cringe if all my other siblings were
catchy and simple.
what fear to have
a mother and father at the top
of whatever charts might exist
in such a place.

i know i could never stick
in anyone’s ear long enough
to become a favorite.
even if i did, i am sure
it might happen once at most
in my life. i could never
carry my own tune. i could never be hummed
by millions. i could never make
my family proud.

still, there’s one hope: when i was young
needles would slide to a hidden track
at the end of the vinyl. maybe
it could happen here. no one ever knew
the name of that song. that might work.
i might look to my left
and find her there when the track
began to play. maybe that counterpart
might give me some hope: lines
twinning as we are twinned. they
love her. maybe they could love me
for the counterpoint i could add
to something the family could not name.