“I was a delicate flower of three years
And you a sturdy boy of four
When you transpired into my life
With your ringlets of silken coal
And your tawny honey eyes
Full of a zealous sparking fire
Kept burning by your charcoal lashes
That swept shadows above
The piece of art you dared to call cheekbones.

Papa carried you in
A blithe grin gracing his face
As he set you in front of me
And acquainted you with myself
Sweetheart this is your brother
He explained as you offered me
A timid lift of your full lips
And my rosy cheeks lifted in return.

At first you were bashful
And you refused thoroughly
When I invited you to frolic with me
But as a fruitful spring passed
Your hearty soul joined me
By the reflecting pond to catch butterflies and
Waltz to nonexistent harmonies
In the sinister seeming woods.

Two more springs passed
And before long we were both in school
It was then that I began to think
That we were too unlike in appearance
To be real siblings
For the blonde cornsilk that sat upon my head
And the pallid pigment that was my skin
Greatly contrasted your coal ringlets
And your ebony complexion.

So that day I went home
And asked Mama
the question that haunted my baby mind
Mama sighed and she looked
Sternly at me
Her eyes bearing into my soul
As she said
By blood you are no more brother and sister
Than your father and I
But by spirit he is your brother
More than any blood brother could ever be
For he loves you even without the blood bond
That would tie you as his sister.

I didn’t fully come to understand
What that meant until
More springs passed and I
bloomed as a young rose of thirteen
And my heart went out to the first boy
Who showed interest in me as a womanly character
And my glass heart shattered into pieces
when I found that boy lurking in the murky shadows 
with his volatile lips attached to those
of my closest girl friend.

You found me with
Ink black tears of spoiled mascara
Running down my face
My arms wrapped taut around my impotent body
My mouth spewing blasphemy
As I sat under the blackest cloud
Caught in the inhospitable downpour
And you clasped me into your sturdy arms
Enveloping me in a sultry embrace
Holding me only tighter as my salty tears
Mixed with the rain on your undershirt
With your own shirt laid across my shoulders.

The next five springs I spent
Learning etiquette in a Lady’s school
And when I returned
I was a stately woman of eighteen as
Papa and Mama greeted me at the door
Their fair hair streaked with the gray
That hid also behind the skin of their
Wrinkled faces worn with age
And tiredness that was poorly concealed.

Everything there seemed senile
And outgrown until
Your godly figure graced the doorframe
And I slowly took in your ringlets of silken coal
And your tawny honey eyes
Full of a zealous sparking fire
Kept burning by your charcoal lashes
That swept shadows above
The piece of art you dared to call cheekbones
As you offered me a timid lift of your full lips
And my rosy lips lifted in return.

In the months that followed
You showed me everything that was different
Since the last time I was by your side
And you told me your aspirations in life
Of escaping the small town
And becoming a sailor
And travelling the boundless world
You saw to be full of hope
As I found myself
Thinking about you in every waking moment.

It was at the end of the summer
That I finally realized what had happened
As we sat by the pond with our feet dangling
In the pristine water
And your arm wrapped around my waist
As I breathed in the musky scent of your cologne
And your full lips molded onto my own
I realized I had crossed the unforgiving line
Of sisterly love
And that I was in love with you.

Once you had left that night
I sat by the pond alone as
The coldness started to set in
And I began to feel the weight
Of my sinful and unforgivable actions
For I had taken a bite of the forbidden fruit
But I was too craven to take another
And so I did what I did best
I left you.

Years later I heard that
You tied the knot with a  seafaring woman
Who bore you two babes
As brawny and alluring as she
And though it broke my heart to hear
That you had moved on from our love
I endured it as the merited punishment
For the crime I believed I had committed
By loving my own brother.

And last year your wife came to me
Knocking on the door of the now crumbling house
That we had once shared as virtuous children
And she told me of the carcinogenic cells
They had discovered in your frail body
And that you had but a year more to walk this earth
And so I thought of coming to you
To see you one more time
Before I knew that you would be forced to face oblivion
And bite the dust.

But now that I am here
It’s too late
To tell you that I’m sorry
and to tell you that I love you.”

Having said this
The old lady set her head
Down next to the shriveled old man
Sobbing and clutching his pulseless and feeble hands to her
Warm and welcoming bosom.

“I love you too, you know”
A well known voice whispered in her ear
As the old lady felt calloused palms on her shoulders
She leant back into the familiar warm embrace and she
Smiled.