IDW - Daisy Chain Flower Crown

Late to the party again, but only by hours not days. A poem about my sister.

Photo by Kristine Cinate on Unsplash

Well I’m late to the party, again! I admit it. I forgot. Sorry. So I scoured my writing etc to find some beautiful feminine life affirming stuff and I could find very little. Hello dark side and anger. So I scoured my ‘back catalogue’ 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 and found a couple that might do. But in the end I settled on this one because it’s about my sister and not about me berating someone.

My Sister

When they ask me about my sister
they say
‘does she look like you?’
no, not really I answer, and half-grin;
inwardly,
she’s adopted
that stops them
“oh’ they say
all sympathetic like, 
sadness tracing their faces,
like adoption is some kind of disease.

‘but your brother’s your real brother isn’t he?
they question again
my sister is my ‘real’ sister
I reply
by law
can’t say that of my brother
can of my sister
and I can see they’re trying not 
to be impressed.

‘but your Mom and Dad aren’t her
‘real’ Mom and Dad, are they?
they sneer.
Me an’ Dom share the same parents
Me an’ me sister do too.
by the way she’s Black.
‘OH!’ they exclaim
shock deep in their eyes,
like being black is some kind of disease.

‘you can’t love her like you do Dom then?’
why not?
she is still me sister.
‘but she’s black?’
she’s Black, she’s beautiful
and I love her.
‘oh’ they say
all taken aback like,
not quite able to believe

‘when did you get her then?’ they ask,
clutching at straws,
like she was some kind of parcel
we had delivered through the post.
she was six weeks old
I say, I’m starting
to get defensive now.
‘oh’ they say,
sensing my tension
looking at me sideways,
like I have some kind of disease.

‘ok then, I believe you’ they say
then steer around the subject,
get careful with their jokes,
and never mention my sister again,
like she doesn’t exist anymore.
eyes begin to rasp me when I walk into the room,
people heard to exclaim
‘so that’s the one with the sister is it?’
and I walk away,
for they have some kind of disease.

Thank you to Claire Venus, Lyndsay Kaldor, Lindsay Johnstone, Lauren Barber,Laura Oldfield, Zoe Gardiner and others to create a daisy chain flower crown with posts about femininity and sisterhood for International Women’s Day. I think I managed on the sisterhood front, quite literally.

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