Paired

In 2001 Sue Thomas gave her sister

A pair of earrings for her birthday

Wafer-thin motherboards

Metal as fine as lace

Nodes where knots would be

Linked not by choice but by design

 

Five years older than Carolyn

Sue was a Professor

Always more grown up

Than Carolyn could ever be

That fact would never go away

Nor would the fact they are sisters

 

Six years later

Carolyn rediscovered one of the earrings

She hung it in her room, alone

And admired its delicacy

Often wondering

Where the other might be

 

Seven years later it reappeared

Surprisingly in her garage

Files tipped out of a cardboard box

Onto a dusty concrete floor

Revealed the earring

Hooked underneath the inside flap

 

Together again, the network reconnected

Sharp words and edges catching

Both flesh and thread

Memory restored

Joined

Like a paired device