Oak-leaved Geranium

My sister and I know each other like the back of our own hands.

Each freckle a thought that lurks in the cracks of our consciousness as we try to sleep at night.

Each vein the greatest secrets we hold deep within our souls

Each phalange our greatest fears and struggles counted off one by one.

We know every awkward edge and curve of our bodies and minds

Used to curling into one another

Filling in the holes and divots of our lost selves,

We fill each missing piece of ourselves with love, understanding, and loyalty.

We share a childhood, a past life.

Together we are a single unit

Like one lonely heart we pulse with a life all our own

Our mismatched socks tread similar familiar paths

Apology notes passed under door cracks

A shared existential crisis here or there by the pool side

Board games and wrestling matches on the carpet

Sleepovers in her room because even though I had the bunk bed with the latter, she had the cool bed that another bed could slide out from underneath

It was like a precious secret kept hidden away for only us to enjoy

As we float along the tidal waves of our own creation

In our backyard pool

We learn to swim without each other

The tighter we cling to each other that farther we sink like heavy boulders

We cannot carry the weight of two separate worlds

Soon we can only support each other in the shallows

We must face our own deep-ends alone

Those days when we fought,

Annoyed one another to the point of exhaustion

When we forgot who we are

What we mean to one another

I wished for a way to explain to her what she means to me

It seems as though this has been the right way all along

Through writing I can tell her how she reminds me of bumble bees and wildflowers

The smell of paint and side-walk chalk

The sound of the ticking clock on our living room wall

And deep belly laughs

She’s like oak-leaved geranium

A tried a true friend

Ready to great me each spring

And though life might diverge our trails

I know that our paths will always cross again

And that you will forever be an essential piece to the jigsaw puzzle of my life.