Sisters

Our two beds shared the attic

We’d stare at the ceiling in the dark

Are you awake? Are YOU awake?

Nope, and I can’t sleep

How many times can you crack your knuckles in a row?

Does our dog ever sleep next to you?

Do you know where you're going?

How do you live with what you lose?

Snow melts into puddles on the lawn

Ice sheets frozen to cars

Who’s turn is it to clean the kitchen?

And who hid the remote?

Grabbed our nets and our buckets

To the creek under the bridge

Lives passed by in cars overhead

We could feel them through our skin

The sun set late in the summer

Nights lasted twenty years

You left with your friends to parties

I imagined friends at home

Now you’re married and far away

You looked happy in the pictures

I think of you every day

But as you asked of me years ago,

I leave you alone

Do I carry enough of your good parts with me

To let the rest of you go?

We shared so much we grew into each other

So you are always with me.

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