Two Oh!

I'm wishing the happiest twentieth birthday to my beautiful twin sister and very best friend. It'll be a day filled with classes and work and busy busy times but we'll sit down tonight and celebrate by eating gluten-free cake and exchanging a gift to each other. This first picture is one of us as six-year-olds after we moved to Montana. The second one is at our senior prom. And then a poem I wrote last year around this time. Happy happy day!

Birthdays

I was held between

flesh wall and twin.
Warm, wet darkness

and shifting breath of sister.

We were born 

and held the same smile,

a zigzag across our peach faces,

creating kaleidoscope pictures

from the brightened hospital room.

Our hands and feet knotted

together

in the cradle,

a tangle of crisp blankets,

wisps of light hair

and wailing toothless mouths.

Twinhood, a dual mosaic

of first steps and first words.

I crawl and you watch,

I step and you watch,

and you mimic like shadow.

A lightness holds us,

like soft hands hold

a fish or a bird,

your body and mine

in a quiet, still space

of utter unison.

- K