Did You Get Enough Love, Little Dove?

Dear loneliest undemanding sibling,
The one no one ever worries about,
The one who takes care of everything,
The one everyone sees as a savior,
The one everyone thinks of selectively,
The one with the answers everyone wants,
The one who always has it all together,
Did you get enough love, little dove?

How are the shadows talking today?
Do they ask you how you’re doing, again?
Do they remind you that you’re never alone?
Do they talk to you like a person that lives?
Do those ghosts remind you of what life is?
Do they remind you of how happy you were?
Or do they ask you what hurt, today too?
Are you ever honest with them, little dove?

Dear loneliest strongest sibling,
The weather seemed nicer today,
Even if you were busy fixing others,
Busy being the strong one for them all,
Busy trying to hide your pain from life,
Busy trying to breathe in the suffocation.
I saw it too, but I couldn’t go outside,
Because I’m just like you, little dove.

Stuck in a cycle that never seems to stop,
Forced to parent those who should parent,
Forced to grow up faster than the others,
Forced to be the adult in a child’s body,
Forced to live in cages they set up gladly,
Forced to be the therapist when I need one too,
But only because they all made me into this,
Maybe it gets better, little dove, just maybe.

That’s what I used to say too, back then,
When I was just a child, living in pain,
When the mirror reflected a stranger,
When my uniforms couldn’t fit again,
Not because I had gotten healthier,
Or because I was a free child in the fields,
And it hurts, and haunts, even to this day,
Perhaps I miss being a child too, little dove.

I never got enough love, little dove,
Never got to even know what love was,
Never got to feel what it was like to love,
Let alone be loved by those around me,
Because child parents never really get the love,
Only adult responsibilities that are never ending,
Maybe if they cared about kids being kids,
You and I wouldn’t be the loneliest siblings.