circle (for dama)

reunion
waiting outside the door (your

mother's disturbing
strength) i don't know
where else
to say that to
be weak is to be strong is to
be weak
discovering footstep ghost trails in
tomorrow's gardens that you
will wander meditatively upon and
around you will be all around you and
there will be

darkness
humor
parity
compromises
promises

pretend
tension
rebirth

and though lost there is
a dark and beautiful bird at
the window and you'll see it
forever and it will be noticed
forever and it will be invisible
forever and it will be heard
and known at the window and
is
known
and

no one knows but they will
say many lovely and despicable and
considerately inarticulate things and you will
listen to them and place them very
carefully upon freshly presented
furniture surfaces and your
sister is lovely she is
in your metered breathing and
the tips of your hair and
your penmanship and the way you
playfully hunch over and grin and
in many years her steady embrace will
have been so steady that you
won't exactly feel it anymore quite
but
maybe still listen to it hum in concert
with your imagination

i don't know what encircles us
like this but we will
always
encircle
farther
around it