A Letter to the Twin I Ate in Utero
I’m sorry.
I was hungry I guess?
I’m not sure why it happened. You were there in one ultrasound. A shadow person. A double image. The doctor says I absorbed you. Mama says that makes me twice the woman I might have been.
Image Credit
I missed you. I always set out a cup and saucer for you at tea parties. Put a mirror in your seat so I could find you in my corner vision, know what it might have been like to not be so alone.
You were my greatest wish. I wanted you to be whole and real and with me. Not just in shadows or reflections. Not just in Sweet Valley High stories and prenatal memories.
Mama said two is a different dynamic. You become susceptible to rigid thinking, assignment to false dichotomy’s of good versus bad. Maybe.
Waiting for you to show up to our parties grew tiring. I learned you’d been whispering about me through the vents. It chilled me.
So I drank your tea and I broke the mirror. I swept the glass from your seat. I stretched, reveling in the freedom of one body, one mind and, when I stood with my back to the sun, footsie with my natural shadow.
Recent Posts
- Hiding Verses Podcast: Acts of Self-Love after Abuse (dsound)
- How Starting off 2018 with an Injury Makes this My Best Year (motivation)
- Hiding Verses: Me Too (dsound)
- ANNOUNCEMENT: Best Comment Winners from Feb 5- Feb 11 (steemit)
- I want to help you write through trauma (writing)
- A Gentle Reminder (motivation)
- 6 Tips for Beating Seasonal Affective Disorder (psychology)
- Hiding Verses: Meditation after Illness (dsound)
- #reportabuse: My work is being plagiarized by @alutajay and yours might be too (reportabuse)
- Interview with my Five Year Old: Talking Pizza, Cookies and Giving (dsound)
- She Could Love Herself (psychology)
- Creating a Lasting Love Story (life)
- To the Departed (life)
Don't forget, best comment on this account or @nat5an each week gets 5SBD reward.
Wow... Lovely
This is incredible. I'm totally amazing and into it. I don't know if it is real, a story, or just a look at a character, but wow. This reads like my memory of reading "A light and August" and Faulkner. It makes me think this is a classic story taught in schools for its exemplary description using images, sound, and emotion without being obscure.
There were so many moments where I just read it again in awe at your expert craft.
Here are a few in particular I adore:
The title is an excellent Hook! I couldn't help but read it; provocative, interesting, and just shocking! Who talks about the twin you ate?
ANother favorite:
I just laughed! No, no more Sweet Valley High stories! But really, this starts the image of your twin hovering over your shoulder in everything you do, even in those happy moments on a bed or couch lost in some story.
The final image I loved here:
The image is so clear! I can picture just standing looking down while dancing my toes, point, flex, point, tap. Wow.
This is phenomenal. I love it. Thank you for sharing.
This is an amazing line.
Also... SWEET VALLEY HIGH??? I loved those books in High School... embarrassingly so :)
I love this. I love how visually evocative your writing is for me, how utterly relatable and just... it's like you read my mind half the time!
Great story!
And even jn the darkest of nights our shadows are there.
Flowing through infinite space with each kick and each snare.
Lovely trip! Thanks!