A Tale of Two Sisters
O' for so many years I've wished you happy birthdays or
beginnings, yet there's something very special about this one-
a milestone in your life and mine too.
Are you aware that we've spent our entire
lives together or in proximity?
Now let's reminisce and trek back across
the countless days and nights we walked to and fro
on dusty trails and gravel roads; to school and church
singing 'How much is that doggie in the window',
echoing the 50's.
Do you remember our double dates with Joe and Milt
as sap rose in the trees preparing buds to flower and
budding teens kissing and keeping out of momma's sight.
Okay, okay! I know you're tired- I am, too!
Let's slow our steps a tad for our feet look
like 'Old dancing Dan's deformed hoofs.
Look at those pink roses in your garden, calling to mind that
budding day in May we boarded that streamline.
Carrying a suitcase apiece; a shoebox of fried chicken that
both lit into before the train had barely left the station.
Going to a place that both, and momma had only heard of.
I'd not long graduated high school, as fresh as wild flowers
on the hill, and you 16 and in high school still.
I've often wondered what Momma were thinking- though her
reason long in the dust- sending two tamed girls to a
feral city to live with a 19 years old sister in a single room,
sharing kitchen and bathroom with others. A second time.
Momma, what-in-the-world were you thinking?
Were you enslaved by the beginning (your creation)
and needing somebody to amend your guilts or faults?
Many bygone years and I wonder still.
Still the thoughts of that long trip cause my heart to loudly
beat on reaching the stair landing and having to wade
through a sea of people pushing and shoving their way
through Penn Station. Huddling shoulders to shoulders, our
ashy feet obliging, leading us out the station, Sunday May 8th 1954.
Two jaws dropped, eyes bucked in wonder and awe
as we stepped onto 33rd street in New York City, smack dab
in the shadows of gigantic and boundless buildings!
A decade later the three had increaed by two
little boys; an older and younger brother had
migrated too-only later to end themselves by death,
leaving each his tragic story to ponder!
Later, our baby sister completed the link.
And our progenies increased by many.
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poem by Almedia Knight Oliver
Added by Poetry Lover
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