An Ode to Us

By Caroline Schwartzbeck

I thought dynamic duos were a thing of fiction, but
proved myself wrong when we grew up together,
when we became us, two pairs of little feet tickling the
front lawn, I still think you’re a nuisance just like I had
ever since you came out the womb, we’re still
sisters, not us, we fight as much as we laugh and
laugh while we fight, not at me or at you but with
us, the way our parents looked last summer when
we talked you’d think we invented another language but
of course we didn’t, it’s still English, just us, we both cried
the last time we saw each other but only just after the
fact because neither you nor me would ever sully
the sacred final moments of us, we live beyond the grave, writing
letters sometimes and calling regularly and texting
often and thinking of each other way more than that
because we’re thick as thieves and even seven hours by
car could never, ever stop us, and it’s impossible to fully
understand another human being but if it wasn’t
you’d get me and I’d get you, because who else but
us?