t's my calligraphy set we're playing with

But you begin writing the most exquisite

Illuminated letters that make me

Ache for a bit of the artistry

Those dragons that flow from your pencil -

They flit through my dreams and always will

Thin girl, slim girl, win girl

My tour guide who knows this town

More than I have ever known any place

Grin, girl, cause I love you

Wild and crazy workaholic

You are a mass of contradictions

Taking the hardest classes with me

Breaking our minds upon the dissertations

The late nights, the crisis

But then you suggest that we go to the playground barefoot

Despite there being yards of summer-heat asphalt in the way

Got a perfect 800 on the SAT reading, and I was jealous

But somehow I still love you and was happy at the same time

All bones and white skin, but so full of life

Don't work too hard, that's all I ask

And you're taking up Irish jig dancing

And you squeal over Swarm Theory with me

And you know how to use the computer way beyond me

You're becoming a biologist

Yet you are the best craft-maker I know

That bracelet of beaded safety pins -

Those turkey earrings for Thanksgiving

That elaborate paisley design that makes me gasp every time

Juxtaposed with the highest test scores

And a love for creepy-crawlies

You complain a great deal

But the complaints are the funniest things I've heard for a while

We have to feed our nasties once in a while

You never know when you'll need your nasty

One more year, dear, and it's goodbye

But a part of me will always

Be sitting by the concrete stream, watching the ducks

And discussing how water buffaloes are sweet creatures

Or the marvelous frogs that you say once lived here

You've got lots of craft, girl

But not a trace of guile