I suffer taunts and jeers as I jump off the schoolbus and run

Up the dusty path that is the driveway to my house. They don’t understand that

I run to make sure she is still here, to make sure she hasn’t left me alone.

Every day I run because she tried to leave me once, but they say

It was only an attempt. She’s sad now, but they say

She was sad before. They say she’s empty, void

Of emotion. I don’t care what they say.

I run because she’s my sister and I don’t want her to leave yet. I love her

And she smiles when I tell her but it never reaches her eyes. I loved her eyes,

But they aren’t hers anymore. I will run every day, to see the day

That her eyes are her own again. I thought I would always be running,

Always running until the day I ran home and she left me. Gone,

Like the days of summer, falling into the darkness of winter. I ran

Every day. Until the day when I stepped off the bus, and realized I didn’t have to run anymore.