you came, you saw, you cousin of mine
i welcomed you in, it'd been a long time
(and we had another good, long time)

waiting for you to quit going on about
dance recitals and tablet games and
going broke at age ten and
loving cheese but hating macaroni and
running suicides at school and
drawing mannequins and eyeballs and
playing hot cross buns on the recorder and
showing off tuxedo kitty pictures and
mickey mouse impressions and
how sugar-ridden you like your sweet tea and
how many fairy hairs you can have and
how many cookies your troop sold and
how many more selfies we can take before you have to go back home and-

what the hell is wrong with me?
next time i see you, it's unlikely i'll be
lucky enough to receive a "what's up"
because you'll probably be a teen
drooling over boys on your screen and
flat ironing your hair and
snapping photos of yourself and
dancing on broadway or
winning project runway or-

maybe i've got some growing up to do
before you beat me to it