I was born in the haze of summer
The year my sister
Became a teenager
A silver thread
Intertwining us

High heels and L.A. Gears
Walking side by side
1980s babies
In different tones

Practicing her perfected pout in my mirror
Her lipstick. MAC’s Ruby Woo.
Dancing in her bedroom
George Michael was both of our firsts.

As I turned into a teenager
I walked in her borrowed heels
As she walked down the aisle
and into a man’s home.

I moved into her bedroom
Ruby Woo lipstick kiss on the vanity mirror

A teenage beauty queen
and a mother, wife
Her borrowed heel broke underfoot

Lolita laughing at the new millennium
Sister brings more children to life
Older beauty’s facade is fading
Little sister walks home alone
Crown of blooming roses
Resentment fallen on her flaxen head

We were sewn together with silver thread
But in the harsh sunlight and faded nostalgia
Silver tarnished and split in half

I replaced my sister with youth without meaning to
One day when my beauty falters
we’ll both leave Ruby Woo kisses
on the vanity mirror together.