For My Sister

She stood at stair tops hollering insults

And praised me when I did her bidding 

I grew up a flying monkey

To my sisters wicked witch

A lackey

A minion 

A boy born to follow

But lately she passed me her shoes to step in

So I could walk a mile in my future

As a child, 

My sister seemed so scary her skin may as well have been as green as Fenway legends

I used to think I was Dorothy

The good to her bad

The kind to her cold

Then I was the tin man

Fully loving but never understanding

As my brain fell behind her academic integrity

She was smarter

She was clever

So I must be the lion 

Knowledgeable enough to see the problems

But too scared to confront them

Or the scarecrow 

Heartless and empty

I knew what she did

What she went through

And never moved or managed to speak

But finally I realized my role as a henchman 

To the most misunderstood master the world has ever seen

My sister

Wore skin as green as the grasses she grew up in

With lemon tree memories taped to the forefront of her mind

And Boston snow packed insults in the wake of her wit

My sister is elpheba

Because it took me 15 years to see her as person rather than a role

She began adopting animals at a young age

I thought she liked control

But she preferred to give each soul a home

Found her memories of lonely nights 

Despite being surrounded by friends in the childhood basement turned cauldron bubbles

My sister

Is the one who doesn’t discriminate from the people before her

Even Dorothy and Glenda were judgemental

But my sister was blind

Only saw right and wrong

No matter the ramifications

I began working for her the moment I saw the confidence in her cause start to waver

She’s been labeled a villain

Sometimes a monster

By a boy too wrapped up in his own narrative to realize the witch who raised him was the girl down the hall

Not the woman in the basement

My mother taught me to make a new path

But my sister taught me to own my choices 

So I sided with her against the world

She resides in a far off place

Full of problem an strife

But she talks about home like an emerald city

So I do her bidding

Hoping one day I’ll reach the point where I can atone for the years I participated in the campaigns she saw through

Flying above the bullshit she recognized at a young age

My sister gave me my wings

So I could learn from her falls

I only wish I had seen the girl behind the grandiose villain

I had created in my mind

I am a flying monkey

And I’ve never been prouder of the shoes I fill when she’s gone

Not ruby slippers

But toms with her name etched in the side