We were not born of the selfsame blood,
Nor shaped beneath one mother's sky.
Yet something older than our names
Knew where our kindred spirits lie.
Three different fires, three sovereign flames,
Each tending kingdoms of her own.
No crown diminished by another,
No heart required to yield its throne.
For sisterhood is not a chain,
Nor love a debt that must be paid.
It is the room we freely offer,
The sacred trust that time has made.
And when the weight of kingdoms grows,
When even fiercest fires burn low,
Here, we may lay our armor down,
And find a tenderness we know.
We need not walk the selfsame road,
Nor see the world through borrowed eyes.
We stand as witnesses to each other,
And celebrate when one shall rise.
No envy at another's harvest,
No judgment when her seasons change.
Only the grace of being known,
And loved through all that life may rearrange.
And should the winds divide our paths,
Or years unfold what none can see,
The circle holds without a tether—
For love need not possess to be.
With Grace & Ink,
Mai
