DOROTHY
Saturday, February 19, 2005
3am


Letter to Dorothy

I had hoped that maybe when we grew old, 
our spouses gone, we might mend the rifts between us,
patch us up and live the other end of life together
learn songs our parents didn’t teach us,
talk across twin beds 
the way we (sometimes) did in childhood.

But our lives between then and now
spoke a different ending
with you dying 
younger
than your life
expectancy
and me
the older sister
left behind
to write
and wonder
how we 
squandered
so much 
time 
and when 
it was
(how old were we?)
when 
I left you.


Home
My Two Dead Sisters
~ Esther  12/3/41 -                       ~ Dorothy  1/13/44 - 12/31/04
Dorothy's buried here. 
(Her husband was a vet).
The rabbi said the prayers, 
and Scott and I said: Amen.
Nobody else was there.

                   Jan 1, 2005

dorothy 

maybe dorothy
was an angel,
god's test
for the rest of us
to see 
how we 
would treat
a member 
of his flock
who's star
was 
always 
missing