Dear sister
I have tried to memorize your face
I pieced it together with scraps from magazines
Dear sister
I trace your lips again and again
Wishing they would speak to me
Maybe if I could paint you
I could finally control you
From miles away I try to recreate you
Over and over
Something is off
Your smile is too crooked
Your eyelashes don't fan out the way I remember
I can never capture your graceful fingertips
And the way they move across paper
Marking the pages with your deepest thoughts
Dear sister
Dear sister
You are a deer to me
I will try not to startle you away
But if I do,
and you cannot stay
I will paint you with graphite
And ink
And the lipstick you sent me
I will try to understand
I will let you go
Dear sister