Everyday Reminders For My Baby Sister

I know you don’t like your nose
Or the way you think your hips flare out a bit too much at the sides
I know you think you can’t wear certain items of clothing
You’re mostly trying to hide

But your beauty is not doused in pride
Nor buried in the skin and muscle that stretch over your bones
It is in the way that kindness radiates from the deepest point within you
You are never meant to be what society condones

I remember when you gave up some money of your own
To the starving artist on the Manhattan street
Because when it comes to other people
You yourself always take a backseat

Sometimes you just lie broken on the New York concrete
Because darling you are so considerate and selfless
That people take your heart between their hands
They drop it, tear it at the edges, leave it on the floor in a mess

It is such a distress to witness
Yet, you publish books, get featured in newspapers, become a scholar at NYU
Your drive, your ambition, your blatant need to become yourself never fades
It’s something I want to live up to

Sometimes, I wonder, who is the older one of us two?
I am a child, a needy heap of trouble
You’re there with the wisdom much beyond your years
Suddenly life doesn’t seem that bad of a struggle

Babe, you are a puzzle
A kaleidoscope of colors, I wonder how anyone could see you as anything else
I know you hate it when I say this
But god you’ll always be better than myself

Thinking so highly of you is something I can’t help
I can already see the day you graduate and make the name you want
I want to stand in lines at book signings or in your lecture hall
And I know despite your brilliance you’re remain forever nonchalant

Because you never learned to flaunt
The nonsense that others deem important but you rather learned to be what others need
Through your art, music, and writing
You changed lives with passion and creativity

It is because of you that I learned to be free
With my mind, my darkness, my life, my heart
With the way I hold myself, trust myself, believe in myself as never before
Despite that we always seem to be countries and oceans apart

This is just the start
Of all the things we have yet to do and see and be
We need many more fights to overcome and hugs from which we never want to let go
By your side, I promise to stay religiously

But please listen to me
When I say that I hope one day in the future
You see yourself the way so many others do
I hope you look in the mirror and fall in love with her too