For You, Dear Sisters
Dear Sisters, because we are one
in that we share our DNA,
I put you all together as the “You,” that I love.
I love you for the fact that we all were raised together,
facing every turbulent event in our mother’s younger years:
the days she suffered with a mentally ill husband -
the father we adored who did not know how to love us back.
Together we played in our own private world,
comforting each other as our mother weathered storms
which eventually caused her to flee back to her home in the Midwest.
I recall our days on our grandparents’ farm -
the walks along the lane bordered by raspberry bushes
where we filled our pails eagerly with berries,
arriving home with red berry faces!
The games we played, the way we raced
through Grandpa’s corn fields, discovering
secret meadows and streams.
I recall the days when we moved with our mother to town.
How we walked everywhere we went without a car:
the walks in frigid temperature, the walks holding bags of groceries
and getting lost sometimes as we accustomed ourselves
to our route to school.
I remember playing at the pool, swinging on swings
at parks and playing all the time with each other
and the friends we included as our social circle grew.
The day our mom remarried, we welcomed new children
into our circle of friendship, but nothing compares to
the original sisters, the ones who came from our mother’s womb.
Today we are all different in many little ways,
and yet we are also (in so many ways) the same!
The way we chortle or use our hands to gesture:
I see our mother in those things.
The way we talk and talk and talk.
Endless conversations, squabbles (which always end amicably),
and that deep understanding in each other’s eyes.
In your eyes, I see my mother and I see myself.
You, my sweet sisters, are the love of my life!
March 8, 2023
For the "For You, Love" Contest of Regina McIntosh
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