A Person Worth A Thousand Adjectives

We were born six years apart,

But we struggled together.

And the values I learned,

Can never be replaced.

Our parents were not that of a fairytale;

A schizophrenic mother

An abusive father.

Our sanity was tested to the fullest, as

We grew up cold and hungry

I learned right from wrong,

The importance of friendship,

To fall in love with animals, and

How to be generous with the poor.

I held on her hands when I was scared of the dark.

She learned to cook to fill a hungry belly.

We were beaten every day,

Even if we did nothing wrong.

But she taught me to hold on,

To see what tomorrow holds in store for us,

And to one day raise children of our own,

For we would give them what we never had.

She first became a biological sister,

Then a guardian, 

Finally a mother,

A best friend,

Now a combination of all of these positions.

The first to attend a university in our family tree.

A position of office with a salary and retirement plan,

Living happily with her spouse,

For she is able to forgive but not forget about our childhood.

I never had a mother nor a father,

To be raised up in the streets, 

Influenced by peers, that did not make it

To see a college education 

Or the beautiful world.

The small things that matter,

Are the most important.

To realize somewhere far away,

Someone is having it worse than I did.

It puts a smile on my face,

To think that everything will be okay,

Because we have each other,

Even though she is on the other side of the world.

She is a strong woman,

The poem is about her,

And I know we will both live,

To see the day where we give our kids,

The world we wished we had.