I Cried My Sister's Tears (Re-Submission) Poem by Seamus O' Brian

You were the smallest
of us.

You were the butterfly born
into the garden of broken wings, you
were the diminutive flutter
we hovered over,
so anxious in our watch
for tatters or tears, but you
were born into the branch-wrenching,
soul-tearing gale of the garden.
And so we watched as you were torn,
uselessly, helplessly trapped in the
chains of our own broken childhood,
fumbling about with oven-mittened hands
while the ragged pain of your cries
echoed within the silence of
our hollow amusements,
but our clownish antics
could not distract from a heart
torn from its love.

It was your heart
and your tears that
our hearts, when they were
yet small, casualties of the
vulnerable years, grieved for.
A twin you were—and are—yes,
but you….
you were the smallest of us.

We have walked far
from the memory of those days,
forded streams that became
rivers of years,
ascended heights from which
we could see all the world—
or nothing but our souls;
we have left footprints across
lifetimes of friendships,
and yet,
we will always be bound
by this love
broken in a garden,
but never destroyed.

And you…

you will always be

Loved

by all of us.


For Janie, whose sister's love for us has never dimmed