Without You

© By Danielle Sliva
For something that brings so much happiness
How is it even possible to bring so much pain in absence?
For something that gives so much hope and wonder
How is it even possible to take so much self and future?

For you, my little sister, made this family
They were happy with you
Their little girl
Not as happy as they are with us
Their little boys

You brought happiness foreign to this household
To this family
Happiness so foreign that when extracted as you were
Leaves us at loss and without understanding
So why did you leave us?
Why did you leave when you knew what you meant to us?
Why did He take you?
Did He not know what you were to us?
Did He not know that we needed you?
That they needed you?
That I needed you?

When you entered into our lives it was as though everything might be okay
He stopped drinking it all away, our lives, our money, our happiness.
She stopped crying and yelling and waiting
They stopped looking down on us as though we were less
Everything was good
Everyone was happy
This is not so anymore

Now that you have left us he is back to his old ways
She no longer smiles, no longer laughs, no longer feels
No matter our efforts to make her happy
For without you she is unable.you were her happiness
They look at us, as they did before, as the poor and the neglected and ful.
Nothing is as it was
Nothing will ever be as it was
You are our happiness
You are our hope
You are our future
You are our love
You embodied our laughs, our smiles, our joy.
You were our life.

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