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Own Sister (ghazal)

Late in this world I’m alone in a house with my own sister
Strange to find ourselves here, one rooted, one far-flown sister

We started in the same place, but was it? Never quite truly
Where you stood just shifted from me by a stone, sister

We have seen the same things from behind our different faces
Looked from different heights at this life, my first-grown sister

In our two bodies we lived quick, pudgy, alto, soprano
Family bath, family choir, family work, my bone sister

In my view there was always you. In yours, I guess: me?
Homeworlds drifted. My airplane, e-mail, phone sister.

The people of earth hold their breath, one continent at a time
And once again I am breathing alongside my windblown sister

How am I me and not you? Whose are these thoughts, this skin?
We are us and not us. I am free but not fully, my lodestone sister

We’ve scattered parents, furloughed husbands, full-grown our babes
It is a new time. Here I am. Here you are, my lone sister
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