Dear Sister
_
This shouldn’t be so difficult — your side
of the ocean no colder than mine and
coasts are often rocky and lined with stinking
fish and seaweed. I read your letter again
last night when the colder air rolled over hills.
Each line a new complaint about collapsing cupboards
and sulky cats. The neighbor is painting his house; white
boards sopped of gray and each morning
a different man on a ladder smiling down to sidewalk.
The trees are still today and everything is quieter.
Voices do not carry through closed windows and only
rumbles from old cars remind me that I am not alone
here in the brick house far from the road. The tea
warms me a bit too much and the tray for letters
on the desk still empty, waiting for you to get out
of bed and compose a reply.
_
(*Dear Sister was first published in Two Serious Ladies, and is included in Sassafras via a request from the editor.)
_
Megan Kaminski is the author of one book of poetry, Desiring Map (Coconut Books, 2012), and six chapbooks of poetry, most recently This Place (Dusie, 2013) and Gemology (LRL Textile Series, 2012). She teaches creative writing and literature at the University of Kansas and curates the Taproom Poetry Series in downtown Lawrence. You can visit her at: http://www.megankaminski.com
Sassafras Literary Magazine 