Halfway sister –
closer to friend,
but closer than that.
Empty ice chest, dried beer on the sides, blue paint chipping away;
roaring fire trapped beneath the metal rods of a grill.

like,
you bleed lava,
coal-fire sizzle-skinned princess
red-faced spitting hatred
for society, for high school,
the ideation of a “beyond”
the only thing preventing your
inferno from taking the whole forest.

and I don’t bleed.
ice cube glacier mother
fingernails. steady, tapping the
granite countertops
a mirror, of you, full of
spiderweb cracks
distorting our reflections ….

because we were almost in unity,
but you burn too hot, and I melt too fast.