Sister of the Lake

By Mary Morris

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Stray cats in the attic,
the high bridge
we jumped from
into the river of frogs
and water moccasin.

We no longer ask
if she imagines
our childhood home—

no longer probe
about a life spent together.

Our mother nursed us
seventeen months apart.
We shared a room,
camped in Mexico,
launched a boat to Sardinia.
Witnessed the births
of each of our children.

I am not sure when
we first noticed her memory
migrating away.

Now I could say
maybe that wasn’t betrayal
but plaques and tangles.

When did she neglect
to turn off the stove?
Bake a cake without flour
and eggs? Lose the way home,
a block from her lane?

Sister, you no longer retain
a history of us, remember less

and less, but the more you forget
the further back I reminisce.

Sleeping together.

Talking too late.

Dancing into oblivion.

Swimming in the lake.

Sometimes you need a sister like a drink of water.
Sometimes you feel you are dying of thirst.

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Mary Morris is the author of three books of poetry: Late Self-Portraits (selected by Leila Chatti for the Wheelbarrow Book Prize), Dear October (Arizona-New Mexico Book Award), and Enter Water, Swimmer (runner-up for the X.J. Kennedy Prize). Morris received the Rita Dove Award and has been invited to read her poems at the Library of Congress which aired on NPR. Her poems are published in Poetry, Poetry Daily, Prairie Schooner, and North American Review. See water400.org.

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