In Memory of My Loving Sister Missy, 1950-1994

One of Missy's three beautiful daughters showed an interest in this poem when she spotted it on the mantelshelf in my house, and I love it too.  Suzy, our youngest sibling, wrote it.  I've re-typed it below in larger font.

Easter, 1960?

Matching dresses, mother-made

Yours with yellow ducks

Mine, lavender bunnies

Two brown-haired girls smiling

My hand in yours

Summer four years later

Squatting in the dirt

Our backyard baseball diamond

Snowball posing too, fluffy white

We smile at the camera

Your pixie, my crooked braids.

You'd pedal a blue bike

Me on the seat

Up Forrest Drive

To the donut shop

Knowing the clerk would whisper

"Y'all like a lemon-filled today?"

Your talkative friendliness, the welcome currency

Then back towards home

Down Forrest Drive to Stratford Road

Me perched on handlebars

You pedaling strong

Saturday night, the Stones

You me David

Entire jars of Spanish olives!

Spaghetti--from a can!

And a peacock spreading a tail of living color.

Bedtime, 

Our white and turquoise room upstairs

Double-bed beside the window

Watching pines against the sky

Moments in our childhood 

Like squares of an afghan

Sewn together like a lifetime of warmth

You and me

Sisters.