Only a phone call away,
only a bus or train ride,
I know you can drive,
and still you are distant.
I bought you sweets
on the way home from school,
was thrown into space
by a motorbike
and still ran
up all those flights
of stairs to the top floor
and along the balcony trailing
blood, those sweets gripped tightly
in my lacerated hand.
I brought you poems and stories,
favourite books, a nutcracker soldier
from the Christmas market
like the one in the ballet I told you about
but never got to take you to,
because I moved away
and I wonder if you ever forgave
me for having a life.
Kim M. Russell, 10th April 2017
On Day 10 of The Poetry School’s NaPoWriMo prompts, we are writing letter poems.
Melissa Lee-Houghton is currently running a course on the epistolary poem for The Poetry School. As she has said, “sometimes all we need to be able to write the thing we most need to write is to know who it is we must write to”.
They have chosen as an example a poem by the young British poet Bobby Parker, ‘Heroin Lullaby (or Open Letter To My Wife Upon Our Separation)’. Another example is Elizabeth Bishop’s ‘Letter to NY’.
Also linked to Mary’s prompt at What’s Going On? on 16th October 2024.
writing in north norfolk 
Whatever many obstacles placed before the mother she has good intentions for her broods, no doubt about it! But unfortunately, unwanted events in between may spoil the show.
http://imagery77.blogspot.my/2017/04/her-alluring-come-hither-looks.html
Hank
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Hi Hank! I suppose this poem could be about a mother and daughter relationship but it’s about sisters. Although all relationships have their ups and downs, I always believed in a bond between sisters – not any more.
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Aw, so Sentimental.
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It is very sad, I think, to look back on friendships one had at one time and have no more. This friend you wrote to obviously had been a close one, and still when you moved it seemed the friendship did not endure – though you both lived close enough to make it happen. I am wondering about the ending. It sounds to me like when you moved your life became enriched. I wonder if she was envious somehow?
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Ah, after reading other comments, I see that you had written ‘to’ your sister. I wonder if your relationship has been mended by now.
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Sadly not, Mary, and I don’t think it can ever be repaired. I have tried, but she is no longer the little sister I remember.
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I am sorry, Kim. That is sad.
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Thank you, Mary.
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A close and long relationship drifting away is a sad happening in life. But it happens and we have to accept. I especially love the stanzas with the child in them; her love is so palpable.
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Thank you, Sumana.
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what a heartfelt and moving letter. Still carrying the sweets, injured, just breaks my heart. So much love, and so sad, when there is now distance. Especially sad to lose a sister. So sorry.
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Thank you so much, Sherry. I still have one sister, who I get to see once a year. I’ve come to terms with the loss of the other one. It was her choice.
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Hit me right in the feels.
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Thank you, Shay.
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It is sad when families become estranged. I am dealing with that myself. Your poem captures the feeling of it all well. Sometimes the dark side of life just has to be expressed.
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Thank you, Suzanne. As they say, you can choose your friends but not your family.
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True – unfortunately.
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“I know you can drive,
and still you are distant.”
I totally relate to this poem. I don’t remember how many years it has been since one of my brothers visited me. I’ve stopped running back with the gifts, though. I’ve decided to believe they wish me well. It’s easier.
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Thank you for your empathetic response, Susan. It was so hard at first, but over the years I’ve come to terms with having one younger sister instead of two.
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There is such loss in this beautiful poem but it also ends in redemption – I love how your motifs car – the blood and the imagined red of The Nutcracker. A thoughtful and thought provoking poem – Jae
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Thank you so much, Jae, Your close reading means a lot to me.
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A heart-rending poem, Kim, a narrative spun around a wound that still bleeds, a hurt that never has fully healed. Beautifully rendered through each powerful image.
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Thank you, Dora!
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This went right to my heart. Distance can be so hard to overcome.
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Thank you, Susie.
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