“Women instinctually know how to nourish each other, and just being with each other is restorative” Tanja Taaljard

Looking back
I see each year
As if it were
Yesterday.
I remember
Hours
Of giddy freedom
As we chased fireflies
By night
And butterflies
By day;
I still see
The friend
Who shared with me
Junk food and
Scary stories
During sleepovers,
And who,
Eventually,
Offered solace when
The careless comments
Of a special boy
Proved he wasn't so special
After all.
We laughed and
We giggled our way
Through childhood
To young womanhood,
From youth to
Middle-age.
We commisserated
Over our acne and
Our dirge of dates,
The choice of our gowns
And the selections of flowers,
Should the veil stop at our fingertips
Or trail behind us?
Should we honeymoon now
Or wait until later?
Not long thereafter
We were commisserating again
This time over
The swellings of our bellies
And the swellings of our ankles.
The endless night feedings
And the first days of school.
Graduations and weddings,
And grandchildren more.
Throughout it all,
As our children grew up
And our men grew old,
Our shoulders have shared
The tears of our joys
And the tears
Of our sorrows,
Each drop becoming
Another gossamer thread
In the sisterly love
That will forever bind us.

c. 2023