Monday, March 3, 2014


Our Front Porch

In the summer
our front porch
was surrounded
by vines with heart shaped leaves

if you sat on the very top step
and were real quiet
passersby would
walk right past
along the blue grey sidewalk
and not even give you
a sideways glance

you could just sit there
and listen to fragments
of conversation
coming and going
and on a hot August day
it was the coolest place to be

so when I saw
my oldest sister
with her long brown hair
and cut off shorts
sitting there
I thought I’d join

I took the spot
next to her
as she wiped her cheek
and I saw she was crying
I asked her

what’s wrong?

without even
looking at me
she said

I want to be alone.

so
I let her be

alone

that’s the kind of space
it was anyway
a space for aloneness

it wasn’t until the next day
when I overheard the phone call
in the kitchen
that I knew
he had broken up
with her

he broke her heart

my sister
with
the long brown hair.

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