Big Sister Mentor

For Sarah, whose brilliance cannot be fully captured in words (no matter how many times I try).

My big sister mentor
showed me what to do
when words fail
and one is left sitting
on a park bench
with a Sharpie.

She taught me the meaning
of coffee as a lifeblood
of a love for drink;
The tools of the artisan
to quell, and poke
at the mind.
So brilliantly
she decorated the lives
of everyone around her
namelessly.

With deft hands
and sharp tongue
she perfected each
quaint craft that
crossed her mind.
And oh, brilliant teacher,
how I longed to beseech’er;
I’d volunteer, beneath’er
where I so faintly could hear
from inside her skull
the beating of
a ceaseless drum
in the clutter of
a mind that would
whirr and hum.