Etta

The sunshine slipped away one hazy summer’s day, and all the lilacs here turned gray. /

Still they grew without you - I wished I knew how to, /

But all I could do was reminisce on better days. /

Our daddies yelled, so we hid together, whispering promises of sisters forever, /

Precious years I clung to like drifting sand - until the very last grain abandoned my outstretched hands. /

I stopped hoping years ago, when no one else came in any shape or any form, and all the gray became my home. /

But then, twenty seven, one thick, balmy evening in the midst of darkness, heaviness, screaming, /

When all I hoped for was just to keep breathing, /

She came /

Bursting through the night after the rain, to hold my hand and sing to me my name. /

Her light hair, her art, her gentle ways, like the sweetest salve upon the deepest ache. /

And I think I’m still broken, but she loves me the same, and makes me see in color once again. /

I’m playing and I’m laughing and I’m a friend, /

And I think these fragile hearts were made for that. /