#2 Twins

I wrote these poems for my sister after she gave birth to twins.

Twins; what a marvellous gift of nature they truly are.

They have always fascinated me, and when I found out my big sister was adding to her collection with twins, I was super excited. When I found out that they weren’t identical, however, I was thoroughly disappointed. The disappointment, of course, was quickly replaced by adoration for such beautiful dainty beings: that woman is one good baby-maker. Her psychology doctorate will surely come in handy with all those offspring running amuck. And so, I threw these together in celebration of the arrival:

Little sweet bundle of joy

Be brave, be happy, not shy, nor coy

A warm welcome to the world

Be strong, be smart, be yourself, beautiful girl



A wonderful gift you'll surely be

To the world, to us, and any eyes that see

Don't be afraid, be loud, make noise

For the world is your oyster, beautiful boy

If I remember correctly, I was met with the incredulous response of “Did you write these?!”… I’ll take that as a compliment, sis.

A great many things come in pairs: left and right, knife and fork, matter and anti-matter (ignore the dark stuff), peanut butter and chocolate, peanut butter and jelly, peanut butter and peanut butter…and the list goes on… sausage and mash, salt and vinegar, Penn and Teller, Batman and Robin, Tom and Jerry, Mario and Luigi, Bill and Ben the flowerpot men, and apparently, babies too. You gotta love a set of twins. You may not point and exclaim “TWINS!” every single time you spot them in public like I do, but I do think there exists a collective fascination for the phenomenon.

My mind used to race with fantasies of having a twin brother and all the fun and mischief we could have achieved together. I think the idea of having a twin, a genetically identical best friend for life, was very appealing to me, having struggled to make meaningful connections as a child and have that brotherly best friend figure help me through. A good example of that twin-like bond comes in the form of the 1988 film “Twins”. Despite their rocky start, eventually, their bond shines through.