One shaking foot before another,
I wander and waddle forward.
The people are big,
And I feel small.
Alone in the big world.

"Stay close," I was told,
"Follow your big sister," mother said.
Where is big sister now?

Perhaps I should not have wandered from her.
Yes, staying by her side would have been
Much smarter.
To be by her.
And be protected by her.
But here I am, alone.
And who’s fault is that?
Mine it is.
Where is big sister now?

The air is stifling, and hot.
Summer though it is,
I feel as cold as ice cubes.
Where is big sister now?

I can only see the big strangers,
Tall and shadowed, foreign to me.
Where is big sister now?

Everything is slow, but too fast.
Much too bright, but shrouded in darkness.
Everything is so hot, yet everything is freezing is freezing.

I slump on the sidewalk,
Heart racing and vision blurring.
I am. Lost. Where. Am. I?

Suddenly, I am swept up by two pairs of arms.
My parents have arrived.
They shroud me in tears, and sighs of relief.

In the midst of their babbling,
I see her standing in the distance.
Relieved, and smiling.
There.
Is big sister.
Now.