The Missing Sister

Postcards, she sends
Unexpectedly
From a distant city
Wishing you were there
But you can’t follow
Can’t trace her steps
Your job, your friends,
The daily obligations
You’ve pushed her away
Yet see her face in every mirror
Your delightful, banished twin
You save each card
Until you burn them
Trying to forget

Cold shock
Birds fall out of the sky
The pain when a boundary
Can never be crossed.
Hidden anger
Fish float up dead in the water
The desperation in loss of time that
Can never be redeemed.
Suffering is suffused
Through the sensate world
While prayers rise like smoke
In the twilight.