Sister, My Little Girl


I see you in your earrings and
         your satin evening gown
Your hair tied up, your blue make-up
Your simple, sophisticated
         smile

You
         are a lady now
And I wonder
         just
where you left me behind
         at
You shot down the path
with a movie-star smile
as
         I
                   stayed behind
and stumbled on rocks

You are my sister
We were raised on each other
And was I never aware that
you'd left our daisy-chain days
behind you
As I fiddled with stones
Could I really not see
That you were on the road to being
a woman?

In our summer-time days,
         we sang songs to the flowers
We were cousins to kittens
         and aunts to china-ball trees
I'd read you bedtime stories
beneath an afghan with some cocoa

And the world would smile
As we slept we were only six

And beside a honey-suckled fence
We'd trace mountains in the sky
As our dreams played above us
Placing flowers in our hair

And when you'd laugh
         and run the other way
I'd never be far behind
I'd chase you with a faithful smile
You were the cloud that I believed in


And when you'd smile
That silver bell smile
         my sun nymph, my fox glove, baby's breath bluebell
And run away to
         distant fields

I'd always be there to catch you


But as you sit at your
         steering wheel,
         earrings and all,
That ever-present smile
         thrown over your shoulder,
You took off down the road
And I
fall down in the dust
kicked up in your wake

I choke on earthen mist
My eyes watery. blind
I
         fall
down in the dust

and I lay with my legs
curled up to my chest and
         cry
into my knees as
         my heart falls
out of the
         bottom
of the sky

it rained
         for two months
                   in my heart

So
         did
I not see
         you'd grow
up and walk
away
         from me?
no, I
never knew
         'cuz
         you
drove away

         from
me
My mother and I have a habit of stopping by Michelle's house whenever we're in the area (which is about every other month). She and I did so one day, and I was delighted to see that they were actually home, so I had a chance of spending some time with Michelle. She was sitting in her mom's car, in the driveway, about to pull out, with her mother and grandmother there with her. She was dressed nicely and looked immediately apologetic. She said that she had already made dinner plans with Tuesday (our best friend). When I came home, I wrote this.
I think that this is the first time that I really explored using structure as extreme as this. To tell you the truth, I think I may have  gone a little crazy with the indentions....

Tell me what you think!
Go back to the poetry page.