A sister, same age, but younger,
A dad, gone before you entered high school
        now an imprint in your heart and past,
An aunt and uncle, who live far away and seem farther now that Dad’s gone
An aunt, who finds time to make perfect birthday cakes,
An uncle, as quick to tickling as to anger,
A cousin, a baseball player,
        putting on his game face so no one knows how much his dad’s words hurt,
A cousin, trying to chase her dreams and finding it not as easy as it seems,
A cousin, content to follow life where it may lead
A mom, the middle child,
        trying to hold it all together,
Two best friends,
        the sounding board for my voice,
A team, my team
        through leadership and love,
        painstakingly fixing our problems, one by one
and
Humanity
        funny oxymorons of biology and psychology that we are,
        we’re all hurt and happy, right and wrong,
        we’ve globalized closer to one another even as we fight,
        leaving ourselves with only one choice

        we can search together for the why and who and how we are
        or we can continue to lash out,
        until, amid destruction and pain,

            We’ll have uprooted the family tree.