Rae of Sunshine

Chronic recurrent multifocal osteomyelitis:
Four words that would forever ring through her ears,
The echoes of an eerie bell.
Countless times these words would bring her to tears.

Up the stairs I ran,
To the foot of her door.
I took a glance inside
And lost sight of the place I knew before.

Inside she was twirling,
Around and around on the tips of her toes.
Inside was a different world…
Could this really be so?

Each time she spun
Something new appeared.
One single twirl,
And the wooden fan was replaced by a glass chandelier.

Spin.
The walls widened, creating an enormous room.
Spin.
Her T-shirt was replaced by a gown that shone like the moon.

Spin.
My reflection stared back at me from the pearly floor.
Spin.
Men and women stood in the places furniture had been before.

Suddenly the bedroom
That I knew so well
Had become an enormous palace;
My older sister had cast her spell.

Entranced in this dream,
I almost hadn’t seen
My sister grab her hip in pain…
Blink.

I looked up into two oceanic eyes
And lost myself inside.
In the middle of a hurricane,
I saw my sister struggling in this fight.

Only there for an hour,
I’d felt the tomb weighing on me.
She had been there for weeks
With pain that refused to leave.

With tests, drugs, and surgery,
Each day had felt like a year.
I’d have put myself in her place
If only to rid her of those tears.

That day the doctor said
In a voice so calm, so sure,
My older sister had chronic recurrent multifocal osteomyelitis.
To this, there was no cure.

Echoing that eerie bell,
Those four words ring through her ears.
With them they brought incessant pain,
And never failed to force her to tears.

At first I thought that twirling little girl,
So big to me at the time,
Had let the monster of a disease take over
And with it, her spirit had died.

But over the years she’s brightened;
Her smile shines like the sun’s rays.
And I learned that little girl
Was always here to stay.

Up the stairs I run,
To the foot of her door.
I take a glance inside
And lose sight of the place I knew before.

Inside she twirls,
Around and around on the tips of her toes.
Inside is a different world…
Could this really be so?

Each time she spins,
Something new appears.
One single twirl…
The rays of her smile evaporate all the tears.

Spin.
The ceiling rises thirty, forty, fifty feet high.
Spin.
The laughing little girl dances inside her eyes.

Spin.
I find myself in a place I’ve been only once before.
Spin.
The tips of her toes blend into their reflection on the floor.

Suddenly the bedroom
That I know so well
Has become an enormous palace;
My older sister has cast her spell.