The Brook We Grew Beside

We grew up where the brook bent its song through the backyard,

chasing frogs with bare feet,

dogs circling, ducks drifting.

The roots of the trees held us steady,

while the current carried us forward.

Family filled the air like summer—

voices, laughter, plates passed hand to hand.

It was a house that breathed love.

No one else will know it—

the stories etched in that place,

the way we look at each other and smile

because we remember.

Bound in the same currents,

we learned how to swim together,

how to carry what we couldn’t name.

We didn’t know then

why her voice would shift,

why her moods would climb and fall.

It was ours to hold,

to us it was just the weather of the house.

We learned to read it,

to hold on tighter,

to love her anyway.

And in that, we became stronger.

No one else will know it—

the soil beneath those days,

the way we grew into each other

by surviving the same storms.

Bound in the same currents,

we learned how to stand together,

how to carry what we couldn’t name.

Even when the world feels uncertain,

when distance stretches too far,

I remember the brook,

the roots,

the steady hum of belonging.

You and I—

we are the echo of that home.

Bound by love,

bound by what we carried,

forever linked—

the brook still running through us.

~Jessi #sibling #growingup #family #freeverse