Her Keeper (One Shot Wednesday)

 

My sister doesn’t sleep.

I want to say

are you still afraid–of the night?

but she’d kill me if I knew.

My sister doesn’t sleep.

I lay awake imagining

the chemicals that flood

her brilliant mind, dousing

her down to a caged animal

that’s half-beating.

My sister doesn’t sleep.

I wait for dawn to meet her.

She tells me without words

that there’s a price to pay

when you forge bravery;

there’s a debt that’s owed

to your soul when you

abandon it to danger.

Her dark eyes–those

faceless moons–tell me

somehow I’d been right

to hide in the dark

pretending to dream.