Juli

Chapter 1 - First impressions

Everything was made new when she walked in

I didn't realize how new things were going to be 

Until I heard her voice and understood that every song in the world would bend to all the honey dripping from her lips 

And when the battle came and the storm rumbled too close to our window to be safe

She cried in my arms and I felt like the world owed me a whole debt for putting cruelty first

But being so unexpected as she usually is in the best of senses, I came in the next morning to see that she had stripes of black painted under her eyes 

And the red of her hair was leaking through the way she scanned the room

And I suddenly knew that every battle and every general and every great war was going to bend to all the blood dripping from her lips 

Chapter 2 - Honey and Blood

It was never simple to find someone similar to me

It was never easy to explain to the world that I could have honey and blood dripping from my lips

That my sadness didn't define me nor did my wonderment 

Still, the first time I started to crumble in her arms, I felt seen

I felt safe

I felt... me

She tells me not to beg for the love of those who never really offered us any honey and too much blood 

And as the magical creature she is, everything is made better by her hands and her voice 

She tells me she's going to be there for me 

And if someone asks, I can just tell them she is my sister.

Chapter 3 - Whatever sisters do

When I look at this woman 

Her red hair and her chocolate eyes 

Her soft hands and feet as restless as mine 

I find that I might be fierce and brave 

Because she is fierce and brave 

And I find I can be good and strong

Because she is good and strong

And I find I can crumble and still exist

And if anyone asks, I can just tell them she is my sisters

She is my sister because we have 6 kids together

And because we drink and laugh and sing to My Chemical Romance like we're 15 

And she shows up with her gypsy skirts and her gypsy ways 

Her voice is much more inibriating than any sip or puff

And she comes down of her grown up heels to ask me to watch cartoons 

So we just lay there and cuddle 

Her hair smells like coming home and being loved 

Her hands and mine feel like the roots of trees that just happened to be close to each other 

And in all the similarities, decided to be intertwined 

Coming out of the ground, our roots connect and we support one another 

If she feels like she'll fall, I will be there to hold her steady

And if I try to crumble, she shakes her leaves and shows me the flowers in her skin and the light in her eyes 

To remind me that life is - still, and even so, and yet, and brutally, and enchantingly - worth living 

For the cartoons and the smell of her hair and the six children and the honey that comes with the blood 

My fiery sister shows me that life can be everything we want even when it's everything we never wanted 

And I love, love, love her 

From the mornings in which she is done to the laughter in the evening to the moment she falls asleep with me on her lap 

And she's at peace

And we, in that room, - with a lot of luck, with Sorte's approval, with the warmth and the silliness of loving like kids, all shiny and new - we are the entire world.

For Juli, with love