"when we were very young..."

when we were
very young
our days were as in step
with one another
as fred and ginger,
nureyev and fonteyn,
baryshnikov and kirkland...

taking turns dancing
backwards,
your hand at my back
my heart in your hands...

sharing a bed,
a dress,
friends, a family...

you were the reason
i learned to ride
a bike, the impetus to
try harder,
the desire to be
more than I could have
imagined on my own...

then one day
we were no longer hand in glove,
two peas in a pod,
fred and ginger,
simon and garfunkel...
we were
each
and only
our selves...without the other

all of a sudden you
were going places I'd never been...and
seeing it for the first time...without me.

in a moment,
you had friends I'd never met,
read books I'd never seen,
slept in rooms we never shared...

you may not know this,
but i've never really stopped
reaching for your
hand in the middle of the night,
listening for the rhythm of
your breathing as I fall asleep,
waiting for you to
follow me through the front door
at the end of a long trip...

you are my sister, 
and
it's taken me all these years to
tell you that
I always wished
we'd been
twins...
and although I
know that we are
not
two halves of a whole...
but two
wholes made
better
by one's
hand at
the other's
back...

still, I wished...