SISTER

You, with my own same blood
every DNA strand busy with history
that time-line fore and aft, consanguineous
embracing all that was and will be
embodied in one instant, tiny lifetime - you.

Must we become accustomed to this outrage of severance
Just a micro-hiccup in the long rocking and rolling of karma;
accept with raging grace that you are zapped
into inexplicable other-wheres and ways
however much we rationalize, postulate -
steeped and strained by the sinews of attachment
telling fancy tales to comfort and soothe
our own loss and ache.

You, flying free, the grief is for us, left behind
not knowing or seeing
beyond the surety, the finality of your last breath
us, clutching emptiness and silence
while the sapience and fiery presence that was the immediacy of you
still somehow is.