Dear friend,
My sister is a *******
trip.

My sister
encapsulates her own name.
By definition it means
“admirable, wonderful”.
She’s spoken in sunsets
since she was born.
I’ve seen people
surround her solely
to hear her
next words.

You will never meet
someone as
bright.
It makes no sense,
humans don’t illuminate
themselves.
That’s true,
she illuminates rooms.
Her aura has always
been eagerness followed
by hilarity.

I haven’t seen
anyone yawn in
her presence in
two years
for fear of missing
out on anything
she’d say.
Everything is exaggerated,
her smile
her laugh
her clothes
herself.



My life has been
defined by her very existence.
I know happiness
because she’s
lived 19 years of it.
She came into this world first,
and it suits her.
She said hello before
I took my first sip of air.

She ***** around
and still manages to make
something beautiful.
She ***** around
and still manages to be
something beautiful.
She is abstract art
along with the likes of
Picasso
she is hard to look at.
You have to squint your eyes
to understand her whole.
Step back and look at her
her voice is worth galaxies.
I’m proud to
be of relation.

My sister
is my sister
is my twin
is Miranda.

I will tell you this now,
you
are not silk.
There is nothing soft
about you.
I know
how
badly
we all want to be satin
but it isn’t in our
blood.
We come from stronger
crop.
Be grateful
for that.

I will tell you this now
satin is easy to cut
and silk is easy
to tear.
No one should be okay
with ruining themselves.

You are canvas,
and I will be frank
it isn’t always easy
to look at.
I want you to remember
that in the right hands
canvas is beautiful.
Even in the wrong
hands
it remains tough.

I want to
scream
nothing but
love at girls
who’ve hated
themselves for years.
I would wipe away
their anxiety
and replace it
with kind words
and their favorite
song.

I will ask them
to tell me
about the first person
they remember.
I hope it
was a kind face.
I hope one day
I will be that
kind face.

They will never be silk
or satin.
They are suited for much more
than softness.
They will fall into the right
hands
and I will tell them
they have always been beautiful.

I think the most important part of this life
is learning how to live
solely and completely for yourself.
I say this because no matter
how hard things get for you
all you will ever have
is you.

Smile in the mirror,
remind yourself
that the sun shines out of your ***,
and walk in the light
of every new day
you have ahead.

I remember feelings
and people
that have long since passed.
They weighed on me like wet clothes.
It's too heavy carrying
the burdens of angry words,
and leftover feelings.
You are too important to this world
you are too important to yourself
to allow all of this
to wash over you.

Drench yourself in kind smiles
and happy thoughts.
This life seems so hard sometimes,
but there is no wrong way to live it
so I commend you
on the effort
you've shown thus far.

I look forward
to every person
I will wholly
love.
But
as for right now
my *** looks great
in these jeans
my skin is clearing up
and my
hair has come
to terms with
itself.






Love hurts
in every form.
I have written letters
to God
that spewed
nothing
but cold hearted
empty words.
I was given nothing
but warmth
in return.

I will hug myself
every night
I have
an opportunity
to breathe.
I have lived with myself
thus far
and
when
someone comes
out of the wood work
I will love them more
because
I
taught
myself
how.

My friends are
chain links, a part
of an ever rusting fence
that never falls apart.
No one
has tried
to jump over us.
They always
wind up falling in.

She has lived her
life with more
vigor and sincerity
than this world
knows how to deal
with.
Her voice is loud
and her heart
is larger
than she can
understand.-L

His smile is straight
though the rest is crooked.
He is benevolent
and kind.
I don’t know
how he thinks.
We’ve spent nearly
4 years
trying to understand
the cogs in his mind.-P

She has planted
flowers in
the unhappiness of others.
Her voice is tranquil
and her eyes
communicate
more than
I’ve heard in my
lifetime.- K

He is easy
to excuse
the arrogance
I exude.
His presence
is serene.
He doesn’t rock
the boat
he is the boat.
Showing us
existences
we’d  somehow
managed to
live so long
without. –M

Her laugh
is nothing
short of
an eighth
wonder.
She smiles
in different languages
and manages to
communicate through one.
She is hard to hear
because she spouts
truths that
we forgot
we knew. –H

I can only commend
him
on his life.
He’s done so well
with a deck
that continues
getting shuffled.
He has so much
to say
because his mind
leaves
nothing to
his imagination.
He sees everything
without blinking
an eye. - P

I’d tell you
more
if I could bear
to hash it out.
Truth is
they are hard
humans
to know,
because they are
so much more than
the words
I’ve used to
describe them.

Please stop wasting your prayers on her
quit wishing he was a better version of himself.
His father never taught him it
was okay if every kiss
didn’t taste like cherries.
Don’t blame her because her
mother never told her
every one’s hands weren’t as soft as hers.

I want you to remember
the ending of every fairytale
you heard before going to bed.
Not everyone’s parents
prepared them for the worst.
Instead generations of humans
have been taught to expect everything
to find its place in the end.

Not every boy you meet
will incite fireworks behind your eyes.
Some boys take everything you
have because they weren’t
taught any better.

Not every girl you meet
smells like chrysanthemums.
Some smell like every
pain they’ve accumulated in their life.
A mixture of ash
and tar
washed down with a shot of whiskey.

I’m sorry your father forgot
to tell you that
sometimes kisses feel
like splinters.
He kissed your mother
and forgot
that not everything tasted
as sweet.


I’m sorry your mother didn’t
let you feel more
than the softness of her hands.
It isn’t her fault,
her mother didn’t either.

I want you to remember
the ending to every fairytale you
heard before going to bed.
This world is not a magnet
it doesn’t glue itself back together.
Remember every kiss that tasted like cherries
and how full your heart felt
when holding your mom’s hand.
Remember these things,
it makes everything easier
in the end.

God I don’t talk
about you anymore.
But God I think about
you when it’s necessary.
I think about you
every time I drive
by Lourdes.
I do that every day.
They taught you to me there.
I heard your name
more times a day than
I heard my own.
I think about those
poor little Catholic
kids, who didn’t have a
choice in the way they
believed in you.
Nothing was on our
terms.
There were no exceptions
to our thoughts.
Nothing was right
until we found a Psalm
about it.

God
I think about you
in between asleep
and awake.
When part of me
remembers the Sunday
I went to church
only to be force fed
the Pro-Life agenda.
God I respect
humans.
God they didn’t respect
us.
God I was too afraid
to ask questions.
God their eyes
looked like hate.
God I don’t want
to go to hell.

My Bible
has been sitting
on my closet floor
for a year and a half.
I’m too afraid
to open it
for fear I’ll find
fire and brimstone
in between the Beatitudes
and the Passion.

God I believe in you
I believe in love
I believe in kindness
I believe in life
I believe in good vibes
I believe in fate.
God I believe in everything.
I knelt by my bed
tonight
and prayed
for everything little
Catholic girl
who’s thinking everything
I did.
I understand none of it
and I pray that she will.

I want you to know
that I am not damaged
enough to tell you stories
about who I used to love.
I don’t have enough
scars to dredge
up my memories.
I am not
numb to
past
events.
When I feel
nothing
I’ll tell
you everything.

I can tell you
this.
Being sad
is not beautiful.
Stare in the
mirror
and smile
at yourself.
Please remember
there is no
one in this
world
that you love
more than you
love
you.
Don’t give
everything
to everyone.
You are human
not inanimate.
Do not expend
yourself.
Do not use
yourself
up.
It’s important
feel pain sometimes.
It gives
us reason
to love
how expansive
our hearts can be.
I’ve loved
so many people
too much to
give up on
loving them all together.

Give yourself
reason
to believe that
life is as good
as you want it to be.
I can’t tell you
about those I’ve loved
because I don’t
love them anymore.
It makes me
sad
but they will be
loved by someone
better than
me and
that is beautiful.

As humans
we are anecdotes
and poisons.
I was poison
but I will
meet someone
else
someday
and that is
reason enough
to love myself
and this life.

I won’t tell you about
who I used to love
but I remember
them
and they
were beautiful