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My Sister Mary


07.11.14 Posted in today's words by

Andrew Badger’s most recent poem to appear here was Creation (June 2014).

My Sister Mary
By Andrew Badger

Had God granted her
three score ten,
she’d have blessed
me with brother-in-law
nieces and nephews.

But Mary never sat
in a college class,
never wrote a thesis,
never decided to protest
Viet Nam or civil rights
or abortion, never got a chance
to stomp her feet and declare:
“Mom, wake up! This is the fifties.”

But she did spend nine months
preparing to die–a reverse
gestation–before she ever
figured out how to live,
how to define love,
how to navigate puberty.

Now, well past my three score
ten, I know with total
confidence exactly what
my alter ego felt for me
in her final words:
“Andrew, I love you.”
Spoken as the door
to her hospital room
swung shut and blocked
my tears from her sight.

 



3 Responses to “My Sister Mary”

  1. Jeanette Gallagher says:

    What a beautiful sad and poignant poem! I feel tears streaming down my face as my heart breaks for Andrew…

  2. Sharon Poch says:

    Heart wrenching. Pain never leaves, just morphs into bearable sadness.

  3. I read this twice. Heartfelt!

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