Giggling
The smell of baby powder
Oranges and hide away
Playing pretend with the dog -
the most expensive Barbie we owned.
sharing clothes
sharing parties
sharing rooms
sharing blood and parents and siblings and friends and smells and memories and
Little snores, keeping time through the night
A weird little heartbeat letting me know
you were always there with me.

Fights rising up like
Our summer storms
Sudden and violent,  persistent enough
To drench our memories.
Scary enough to send you crying
Sometimes to mom
sometimes just to yourself
somehow, as an enemy,
you were always there with me.

Manhunt in the neighborhood
flashlights in the dark
playing jungle
adrenaline fresh through our blood
tagging along like - a little friend
a little nuisance
a little sister
you were always there with me.

Fighting my own battles
the windshield wipers on my eyelids
couldn’t keep up
and so I couldn’t always see
you were always there with me.

then I went away right?
and so we split
grades, grades, grades, boys
for the both of us.
the most distant we’d both been
Yet something starting there
hard enough to see
something new growing and
all that time
you were always there with me

Now you have
your own baby powder smells
and your kids have their own dog
to dress up
you live just a bit away
but somehow
the less we share the more we give to one another.
well
the more I give to you
I don’t think you were ever the problem
Because
You were always there with me

and now you give me
nephews
and a godchild
chances to be a hero
to be the best (SO WHAT IF I’M THE ONLY?!)
aunt.
game night memories
And one on one time
In your life times one hundred chaos
in your cookie filled house
a place to always stay
an ear to always have
a harbor from my storms
somehow
you make all this space
for your tag along nuisance of
an older sister
as the closest kind of friend.
Because somehow,
luckily enough for me
You are always here with me.