Slam Poem.

piece of cake

sharing a dorm room with your twin sister isn’t
the piece of cake that everyone assumes it would be.

living with someone I’ve lived with my entire life
and who has lived with me her entire life
gives us certain liberties that
most friends don’t take with each other

most friends or random roommates
are too scared to say how they really feel
or complain about unwashed dishes and dirty laundry

not us.
most people end up biting their tongue,
and not yelling about stupid things like
toothpaste caps left off and light switches left on.
again, not us.
many people silently dislike their
roommate’s habits
be they unbearably messy or freakishly clean.

there is nothing silent about our dislike.

most people don’t bring up their
roommate’s hypocrisy on the subject
of their demands of the lights being off when they sleep
even though they don’t always turn off the light if they’re not
the one sleeping.
oh, we bring it up.
the average person doesn’t deliberately
think of ways to annoy their roommate
because they know their pet peeves so well.

well, we do.

however, most normal, unrelated people
suffer a sort of awkward, drawn out stony silence
when a fight does erupt.
we don’t.
many people end up internalizing their deepest
and darkest dislikes about their roommate’s habits
until one day, they explode.

we internalize nothing.

most people tread carefully around their roommate’s feelings
but also tread carefully around deserved apologies.
where others tiptoe, we stomp.
we aren’t afraid to fight, yell, and huff out the door.
but we also aren’t afraid to sheepishly walk back in
four and a half minutes later.

we really aren’t.
fights may last a few minutes
or maybe even an excruciatingly long day.
but most people’s fights don’t end in laughter and genuine forgiveness.

ours do.