sisters by blood, not by brain

By Jessica Wang

my heartbeat aligned with hers

but our brains were out of balance

her neurons wove through anatomical intricacies

in patterns mine did not

the why to this was not simple

was it the genes that formulated her physicality

or was it the home that nursed her blooming

perhaps it was a haunting intertwine of the two

the ghostly sisters of nature and nurture

and though our minds were inches apart

her thinking dreamt worlds away

while mine was luscious in curves

hers remained frozen in lines

that therapy tried to bend

not quite that she wasn’t made for the world

the world wasn’t quite made for her

her senses confined behind a magnifying glass

things i naturally tuned out were

too raucous in sound

too pungent in smell

too alive for her

sometimes, i imagine

if i were given the chance

to merge my brain with hers

to sync up our mental lives

we would be able to witness briefly

a fraction of how the other saw life

she would look through neurotypical glass

and i neurodivergent glass

oh, the beauty of perspective both kills and vitalizes

because in the end,

we’re sisters by blood

not by brain.