Carol Bowen-Davis Poet Free verse

The Bond

For a moment, I thought
that we were sisters.
I always see you at family functions.
We share the same skin.  Your voice,
your eyes are the same as mine.
Your shoulders are broad and sturdy.
Just like our mother's, our hips widened
from childbirth.
Some of them
conceived by many men.
The rest, by God alone, though time
has made it impossible for me to know
which is which.
No matter.
I love them each.
Just as Mother taught me.
I thought you were taught the same...
to love the bastards as the baptized,
for they are all of you and are only
separated by one day
and the devil.
But, you can't be my sister.
Because you can name all
of the fathers of your children.
I heard you do so by the fire
last night.  You called each one 
by their father's name, saying,
"Each of you, go where your father is.
Play no more with each other."
My eyes welted up with tears 
as I watched each child pull away from the rest, and go, without question, go with their fathers.  Nor did one care
to ask what will become of the others.
As much as it pains me,
I know that it is true.
We are not sisters.
My mother never knew you.

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