"a core beauty within..."

she was such a tiny thing, all dark eyes and
hair like a papoose...black and straight....longer
than all the other babies I'd ever seen with
wispy blonde curls, or none at all...

she was so quiet, almost as quiet as a forest
creature, and she was mine...or so I thought...

she came home wrapped in a blue and
pink-striped flannel blanket and her first bed
was the box from our parents' new vacumn
cleaner...a Hoover...and the box was strong and
lined with a blush-colored satin pillowslip...in
it she was the most life-like baby doll I'd ever
seen...and she was mine..or so I thought...

at four, all things were mine...and this was the most
beautiful, delicate, mysteriously quiet gift my
mother had ever given me.  I wanted to hold her
all day and stroke her soft black tufts of silky hair
that lay across her pale alabaster forehead and above
her ebony eyes...

as she grew, it became clear that her delicacy and
quiet loveliness radiated from a core beauty within, and
behind her eyes, there was wisdom...and strength...
the strength to find her own path, defend her own
dreams, forge her own bonds of love, and soar on
the thermals of her own living...

today she is a mother herself....and she is lovely,
she is strong, patient, wise....and she is my sister...
as I always knew...