Thanks Giving

During the season of thankfulness

It's time for me to address

Those who matter most to me

My family

My real family

My true family

The ones who chose to love me

When the family of my birth

Did not

This is for you

Those separated by many miles

And even oceans

No matter how near or far

They are my family

And this is for them

To the one in tomorrow

In the land of exiled criminals

And kangaroos and didgeridoos

So much like me

Blunt and fiery

Yet loving and kind

Sister from another mister

This is for you

I'm grateful for you, sister

To the one in my real home

Holding a place for me

And a cup of tea

My bad influence with makeups

And fellow cat lady

This is for you

I'm grateful for you, sister

To the one somewhere south

Who makes such gorgeous art

And loves pizza as much as me

This is for you

I'm grateful for you, sister

To the one to the north

My shield maiden sister

My queen of snow

The Elsa to my Anna

Do you wanna build a snowman?

This is for you

I'm grateful for you, sister

To the one quite nearby

The witchy one

The one who loves puppies as much as me

Is that a cat under your shirt?

This is for you

I'm grateful for you, sister

To the spiritual one

The blue phoenix

The one always challenging me

Purely by example

To be the best version of myself

The one spreading beauty everywhere

Who has helped me through darkness

More times than I can begin to count

This is for you

I'm grateful for you, sister

To the one who's a wizard

My wingman

My questing buddy

My best guy friend

This is for you

I'm grateful for you, brother

To the one who's filled

Perhaps the emptiest places in my heart

To the child wonder

The kid more intelligent than me

The exchange student

The one always striving

And in turn inspiring me

The one I get to help with homework

And spoil with gifts

This is for you

I'm grateful for you, nephew

To the one out in Cali

Who makes me laugh the most

Captain Meme

Always good for a lol

The one who has helped me

With my asshole electronics

More times than I can count

This is for you

I'm grateful for you, brother

To the one with the confusing brain

And yes, that is a compliment

The one who's super intelligent

Sometimes to the point

Where I don't understand

The one who challenges my mind

Where no one else does

This is for you

I'm grateful for you, brother

To the quiet one

The one with social anxiety

Worse than even I have

The one I don't have to make

Frivolous conversation with

The one who writes great poetry

But is too shy to let the world see

This is for you

I'm grateful for you, brother

To the one I've known for ages

The one from the days of Yahoo! chat rooms

Who witnessed my most awkward early days

And never laughed at me

The one who's stuck by me through everything

Perpetually the big sister

Always available for a supportive word

Or an uttered prayer

This is for you

I'm grateful for you, sister

All these people I've described

Are my clan

My tribe

My people

My family

And I overflow with gratitude

For each of them

They chose to love me

Without obligation

They showed me

That there's nothing wrong with me

But instead

Something very wrong with all those

Who hurt me

But I'm also grateful

For the family that mistreated me

And didn't want me

Because they taught me

Something very valuable

They taught me that for every toxic person

Prepared to hurt the innocent

There are millions of good, loving people

Prepared to love the unlovable

They showed me what abusive people look like

And since then I've learned to avoid them

My blood couldn't give me love

But they gave me something

Perhaps more valuable

They gave me wisdom

I'm wise enough to stay away

From toxic people

I'm wise enough to see something or someone

Intrinsically good

And be thankful for it

So I give thanks this year

For the good and the bad

In the end, it's all a lesson to be learned