My sister made me be the dog when we were younger.
On the lucky nights she didn’t, when she played the dog,
performances came to a screeching halt if I
dared sing the wrong words or my attention drifted a bit too far from the
audience, composed of our mom and dad.
I never went as fast on my tricycle as she did on her bike, so I watched her become
smaller and smaller as she rode down the dead end street. My feet would get
caught in the pedals, trying to match her pace until I realized I had no need to.
As she made a loop around me, I watched her freckled face twist into a grin,
yelling, keep up, slowpoke before repeating the dance all over again.
The blue-lidded pencil box sat in the crack between our mattresses
covered by her pink polk-a-dot blanket and at least
one of my stuffed animals. She traded the candy inside for my
silence, flashing pointed looks whenever our parents entered the room, a
secret I’ve carried dutifully until now.
Sleds came out of storage when the first snowflakes
brought along the rest of winter. She tugged me up the hill and
told me to get in the front before slotting herself behind me, pushing us down
together, laughing all the way. When our mom called us in for hot chocolate,
we always left a snowman and two snow angels side by side behind.
My sister left first, something I learned older sisters tend to do on a hot
summer day. Leaving became easier for me when she pulled her battered car up,
mumbling a get in before peeling away from my apartment, many shared secrets
lost to the wind and the road. On sleepless nights we talk as the sun rises about
our future apartment until I realize she wants me to help take care of her new dog.
I was looking at old pictures of my sister and I when I came up with the idea of this piece.
The pictures helped jog the various memories with my sister that I ended up including in the poem.
Behind the Writing
“I was looking at old pictures of my sister and I when I came up with the idea of this piece. The pictures helped jog the various memories with my sister that I ended up including in the poem.”
Haley Newland (IG: @newlandhaley)
Writer To Writer Literary Journal 