Marie

We shared a room till I was 6

I'd look across my pillow

Ask her if she was sleeping

Try to keep her from her sleep

We had a picture on the wall of a baby angel in a golden crown

When the world came tumbling down on me and Marie

God knows we couldn't be more different

The two of us cut from the same cloth

Where one end must be velvet soft

The other denim and gabardine

We were Sunday morning church

Assigned seats at the dinner table

Four older brothers raising a little bit of hell, then me and Marie

She looks more like our mother

She's prettier and softer

And she always helps me find my way

I've been lost a time or two

She knows bigger words than I do

But we both got the same size shoes

And no one's ever walked in mine but me and Marie

Marie turned 13, two weeks after daddy sat us down said your mama's died

And it took me years to realize she wasn't out getting groceries

I was waiting on a resurrection

Saved by my disposition

Our grandfather crying in the kitchen

Couldn't bear the sight of me and Marie

She looks more like our mother

She's prettier and softer

And she always helps me find my way

I've been lost a time or two

She knows bigger words than I do

But we both got the same size shoes

And no one's ever walked in mine but me

And Marie

Our big brothers are a Godsend

We grew up and married good men

God blessed us all with children

We're a pretty tight family

The baby angel's framed in my writing room

And I stare at him some afternoons

He must've known he had a job to do watching over

Me and Marie