Growing up it was Always Us;
Never apart, whether walking or on the bus,
cleaned house together and fought together,
Sometimes with one another and sometimes with others;
Watched over me cause you were older than me &
maybe because Momma told you not to let anything happen to me;
Up Early on Saturday mornings watching cartoons,
eating cereal and loving not having to attend school;
Up early Sunday morning on our way to the racetrack;
Maybe Moms might win and I won't get lost again;
Going to the park on bean-beanner day, playing soccer, drinking beer, &
swimming at the plunge, jumping off of the high-dive, having splashes of fun;
Growing up it was Always Us;
Even when you started pumping, it was my found dollars that funded your
early morning, all night clocking;
You only coped a chick if she had a little sis;
Running interference that was my unwritten mission & I did it with excellence;
Hustling in parking lots; Late night relay racing in the streets and then training
early in the morning hopping fences & jumping ditches,
sometimes busting heads until they needed stitches, washing dishes,
doing chores, catching spiders, & burning our nicknames on ceilings with lighters;
My Big Brother & me running L.A. streets & raiding fruit trees;
Growing up it was Always Us...
...& now that you're gone in the physical I keep you in my mental,
feel you in the spiritual, & tatted on my chest so....
...Still...
