OLDER SISTER
Because I have a sister I will always be a sister
I keep this thought to myself
a careful exhibit
the month split in half by lightning
I’d like one beautiful word set apart
mountainside, for instance
the month tips into rainstorm
am I more air or more water?
we attempt collaboration with the weather
it circumscribes us
gauzy and unstructured
sister, my love for you is sleeveless
there are more spacious arenas within us
we hold them and we wave
from across the pool
I’m thinking more and more of islands
what is it that I can’t say?
I’d like to circle the mountain with you
inside your lungs you cloudburst
all around the forest
of your northern college town
your path is deliberate and inclusive
you circumnavigate
the bay the town stands in monument to
when I triangulate our position
relative to the ocean
it’s you inside the triangle
and me inside the triangle
and the ocean outside
accommodating our island
the month distributes one day of sun
a monument to delight
a new season becoming visible
I wonder what nature
of imperceptible storms
gather on your horizon
because we exist in different rooms
a screen streams our faces
toward each other
we carry the space between
so it does not damage
so that it barely knows
what is it that I can’t say?
things expansive and formal
for instance
we are both a part of
and witness to
the largest kinds of water
when you go to the mountain
it’s important to bring a compass
a lamp in your room beams softly
across half of your face
as you reiterate to me
your fears about snowstorms
in the face of vast systems I am helpless
you walk cliffside and close your eyes
for a few seconds
trace for me the diagrams
in your science textbook
tilt into the evening with me
are we more air or more water?
when you’re running hard up a mountain
when fear overwhelms you
when you come undone
what is it that I can say?
I would build you a monument
that we are living
in the day’s bright spaces
that there are territories within us
the world can not injure
that even while we are sleeping
the sky is creating more gorgeous structures