How To: Make a Bed

how to make a bed
step 1: establish where your bed is

growing up my brother and i were attached at the hip.

he was truly my built in best friend.

growing up no one could make out what he was saying,
between his heavy speech impediment
and his infantile speech patterns
what he was saying was close to incomprehensible,

until he and i were about to be separated for bed
“katie cat!”

he’d yelp across the yard
as my mother was getting ready to put me to bed.

once my parents were asleep
he’d drag his spongebob comforter across the hall and
make himself comfortable
on my bedroom floor, right next to my crib.

once i was able to complete
step 2: pull your sheets taut under your mattress
my parents purchased my brother a bunk bed,
where he resided on the top bunk and i on the bottom bunk.
similar to the ranking my parents had for us.

our lives become increasingly more intertwined,
we had the same school friends,
the same church friends,
the same neighborhood friends.
we weren’t attached like sheets to a mattress,
i was in his shadow, like how i was on the bottom bunk

step 3: realize you’re not making your bed
it was an idle tuesday,
i was making his bed
as i was pulling the sheets over my head
i was making his bed
i put myself in his shadow by residing on his bottom bunk.

step 4: relocate
that wednesday, i decided to sleep in my own bed.
my parents kept that bunk bed for 5 years,
yearning,
praying,
begging,
for my brother and i to come back to that closeness
we never did

step 5: repeat process
from siblings, to roommates, to partners, to spouses, to ex’s
repeat this process until finding yourself.