"Family" by J.L. Whitehead

Family

She taught me about love...first your God, then yourself, then your people.

She instilled in us wisdom, hope and pride.

Lessons to be learned, both in class and out.

How the world can be as well as how it really is.

Each of you, different from the other as air is to water,

and yet one cannot exist without the other.

Isn't that how they determine where life resides?

I used to listen to you playing,

and then you were joking,

and then you were laughing.

And in a time too short, you grew up on me.

You grew up so fast in fact, that I never got the chance to tell you,

how proud I am of you.

How you've been more than brother to me.

How through the laughter,

...and anger

...and fighting

...and tears,

we were one...forever and always.

And here's the funny part,

what we have supersedes religion,race and ethnicity.

In fact, it even outshines our blackness.

But it doesn't supersede who we are, where we came from or where we're going.

Because its very existence...what makes us who we are,

begins and ends with family

...and there's nothing like it.

~ J.L. Whitehead