The night before Jen touched down on Earth, I was holed up in Rachel's bedroom in Houston. We had both made a valiant, fruitless effort to sleep; now it was three in the morning. Sometime around one ... [+]
I don't recommend it.
You might wind up like me,
with spiders on your lips,
crawling out like words.
I never meant to offend.
I just never understood
how the other one, my sister,
got everyone to smile at her.
She was nothing to look at.
I stood her up side by side with me,
our faces next to each other
in the one small mirror.
Plain and brown-haired, oh!
The freckles! Yet, the very birds
would come down to take crumbs
from her hand. I could not
understand it. When she came back
from winter's house, rubies falling
from her mouth and telling that tale,
I thought, At last. Here is something
I can do as well as she. Any fool
can fall down a well.
Something I can do just as easily as she.
Any fool can fall down a well.
You might wind up like me,
with spiders on your lips,
crawling out like words.
I never meant to offend.
I just never understood
how the other one, my sister,
got everyone to smile at her.
She was nothing to look at.
I stood her up side by side with me,
our faces next to each other
in the one small mirror.
Plain and brown-haired, oh!
The freckles! Yet, the very birds
would come down to take crumbs
from her hand. I could not
understand it. When she came back
from winter's house, rubies falling
from her mouth and telling that tale,
I thought, At last. Here is something
I can do as well as she. Any fool
can fall down a well.
Something I can do just as easily as she.
Any fool can fall down a well.