Cybella Maffitt
Little Sister
I hold her and lean
into the lazy afternoons
impossibly small
where she will guide my hands
in infant prayers, we
count out lizard tails and
pretend that they’re wishes, beg
promise me you’ll never grow
to which she laughs and
I bite down into it,
and feel its roundness against
my cheeks,
like the cherry seeds we spat
off the deck last summer,
only more bitter, and I
am suddenly sorry
I cannot contain you
she grins wide
with blanketed eyes, I reach in
and unfold them.
Cybella Maffitt is a Year 12 student at St Cuthbert’s College. When not writing, she can be found wandering the streets of Devonport with a sketchpad or camera.