"refocused" poems - Hello Poetry

Afterward, I asked “Where to?” “The beach?” She replied “Too cold.” I said. “Fine, whatever. Take me home, I guess.” She’s too much like you. Even now, ten years later, she still swims in my old hoodie. The pink and blue butterflies on her fingernails barely escape the sleeves. We’re sitting in the sand she is looking at the water as if searching for something far out in the distance. Remember when we babysat all those years ago? She stole my hoodie called it her “Cloak of Invincibility”. She meant Invisibility, we were watching Harry Potter. Today, I wish it were the former. “Are you going to tell my mom?” She asked. “No.” I said “But you should.” I wanted to tell her about what happened in ‘92 about her mother’s battle with depression after a similar thing happened with her but that’s your sister’s story to tell so I did what you always say I should and let the quiet between us be. I watched the waves roll in and crash against the shore. I noticed heavy grey clouds heading toward us “It’s going to rain” I said “Let it.” she replied, with a calm acceptance. She’s grown up so much since the cancer took you from us. You wouldn’t even recognize her. She looks nothing like her mother Or her father, for that matter She looks …well, she looks like you. The spitting image. “Why the beach?” I asked after a long while of listening to the waves. “This is where it happened.” I felt an anger rise up through me and I was already clenching my fists before I realized there was no direction for that aggression to go. I took a deep belly breath, and refocused. “Why come back here?” “to see if it felt different.” “Does it?” “…a little.” More silence. I watched her writing things in the sand with a broken stick she found and then pushing her palm across the words, wiping the letters into each other, cleaning the slate, and again, writing in the sand. “You know…” She said, finally, “I was thinking for a while, about keeping it. if I had, if it were a girl, I would have named it after her." she didn't have to say your name out loud for me to know “I miss her,” she added "Me too". The waves kept hitting the shore and eventually, the rain came. I drove her home, she offered to give back my hoodie “Keep it.” I said, smiling she shrugged and took it with her. On the way home, I drove passed our old house the new owners are letting the grass grow too long for my taste. It seems everything has been growing in your absence. Except me.

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Apr 10, 2016

Apr 10, 2016 at 12:52 PM UTC

jm-romig-1

Mid October, By The Lake

Afterward, I asked “Where to?” “The beach?” She replied “Too cold.” I said. “Fine, whatever. Take me home, I guess.” She’s too much like you. Even now, ten years later, she still swims in my old hoodie. The pink and blue butterflies on her fingernails barely escape the sleeves. We’re sitting in the sand she is looking at the water as if searching for something far out in the distance. Remember when we babysat all those years ago? She stole my hoodie called it her “Cloak of Invincibility”. She meant Invisibility, we were watching Harry Potter. Today, I wish it were the former. “Are you going to tell my mom?” She asked. “No.” I said “But you should.” I wanted to tell her about what happened in ‘92 about her mother’s battle with depression after a similar thing happened with her but that’s your sister’s story to tell so I did what you always say I should and let the quiet between us be. I watched the waves roll in and crash against the shore. I noticed heavy grey clouds heading toward us “It’s going to rain” I said “Let it.” she replied, with a calm acceptance. She’s grown up so much since the cancer took you from us. You wouldn’t even recognize her. She looks nothing like her mother Or her father, for that matter She looks …well, she looks like you. The spitting image. “Why the beach?” I asked after a long while of listening to the waves. “This is where it happened.” I felt an anger rise up through me and I was already clenching my fists before I realized there was no direction for that aggression to go. I took a deep belly breath, and refocused. “Why come back here?” “to see if it felt different.” “Does it?” “…a little.” More silence. I watched her writing things in the sand with a broken stick she found and then pushing her palm across the words, wiping the letters into each other, cleaning the slate, and again, writing in the sand. “You know…” She said, finally, “I was thinking for a while, about keeping it. if I had, if it were a girl, I would have named it after her." she didn't have to say your name out loud for me to know “I miss her,” she added "Me too". The waves kept hitting the shore and eventually, the rain came. I drove her home, she offered to give back my hoodie “Keep it.” I said, smiling she shrugged and took it with her. On the way home, I drove passed our old house the new owners are letting the grass grow too long for my taste. It seems everything has been growing in your absence. Except me.