Sister

It is hardest to write to you.
You know all of my childhood secrets...
playground hiding places
rendezvous with neighborhood kids
torments that were real
and not.

And although you often wielded your
stature and age advantage over me
sometimes with brute force,
we have eventually arrived
at a new place in life.

You, you have Dad's need to control,
Mom's need to retreat,
and so much to say to the world.

I, I have Dad's need to communicate,
Mom's need for privacy,
and miles that separate me from my roots
and home.

And yet we are here, together, experiencing the world
from opposite sides,
opposite cultures,
opposite landscapes,
with the same memories and experiences of
childhood that brought us to
this point.
From this one shared point,
refraction.

Distant Virginia Rain

From my desert home,
I can still hear the
rain
falling steadily on that
tin
roof
in
Indian Valley.

Gathering itself together
where the angles met,
it came rushing
down
in
a
torrent-
a sometimes shower.

And you could almost
not hear
your
own thoughts
when it
rained-
Mellifluous
distraction.