Sister Mine: With You in the Dreaming
The old adage "Time is a healer" has proven true throughout my life. Though there are some wounds that never heal completely, and many times can be broken open by a memory.
I lost my sister 23 years ago, more than a half my lifetime ago now, and though it took years, eventually I stopped thinking of her everyday. Then came a time when a week went by. Then a month.
While it helps on one hand not to be stuck in the past, it also hurts when you realize one day that you're struggling to remember the sound of their voice. That if not for photos their faces might have faded too.
But every once in awhile something occurs that brings the memories of those years close to the surface.
I woke with her fresh on my mind a couple days ago, and had the sense of a vivid dream, though it melted away into oblivion. What didn't fade was the feelings it had brought to the surface.
I have been working on the puzzle of poetry, real poetry, for some time now. Inspired by the incredible gift of my dear friend @ericvancewalton
I really wanted to understand the rhythm and the feeling that brings the words out of the soul and onto the page.
Perhaps all I needed was a muse.
This one's for you Sister mine.
Near a quarter century gone
Has it really been that long?
Laughing, falling off the bed
Somewhere near the witching hour
With a shared, unspoken truce
Against the shadows of the night.
On a pillow, muffled giggle
Whispered secrets long forgotten,
Night reveals the would be future
Bonds of friendship forged in darkness.
Daylight makes a sibling rival
A tug for power rules the hours
But in that bedroom there's a kinship
Made of dreams and breathless laughter
Present fears and future wishes,
Under covers are revealed
Now faint echoes in the distance
Lost in time, to years and years.
But the soul, it does remember
Keeps it safely tucked away
In a corner made of blankets
Two young girls will always be.
So though I miss her in the waking
And always will until I'm gone
She's still with me with me when I'm sleeping...
In the dreaming we go on.
That is beautiful.
Your post made me do the math. I lost my dad 25 years ago as well.
Forever in our thoughts and forever in our hearts.
Thank you :)
They will always carry with us, even if time passes without conscious thoughts. It's been nearly five years since my dad passed.
Oh god I am sobbing over here. May you visit her often in your dreams.
I made myself cry, which caught me off guard honestly. I remember a time when I felt as though I had cried every year that was possible. For awhile that seemed true. But sometimes some space will renew those feelings.
Thank you :)
So incredibly beautiful, @dreemit. I'm very sorry you had to deal with this kind of loss so early in life. You never really get over losing people who're this close to you. It's almost like you have to get used to living with the void of them being gone. I still think about my Father quite a bit. The second anniversary of his passing was a few days ago. I dreamt about him three times that week. I'd like to think it was his spirit coming for a visit. Again, beautiful work. Isn't it freeing to write free verse?
It definitely taught me the value and uncertainty of life early. I really need to write a story about it, the year or two following was terrible and incredible in equal measures. Quite a few supernatural elements in that tale.
It will be five years for my dad next month. I've lost quite a few close people in my life, I like to imagine they're all hanging out somewhere. If it works like that it will be one hell of a reunion someday :0)
Oh man, this is strikingly beautiful and immensely sad at the same time
Yeah, such a big part of my life to that point was spent in our shared room, so that setting is bound to contain the bulk of my emotions concerning her. Even decades later.
Hey Breeze! Good to see you:)
Hey Dreemit, Great to see you too :)
Well I guess the muse finds us when it do. You inspired me to come out of my writing coma.
I saw the result of the inspiration before this comment and it really made my day :)
Thats a fine ending to a poignant prose.
It is weird how everything goes on. I mean weird mentally, the things you think you wont get over and then you do. As a wise lady said to me once. All things will pass. That was you obvs :OD
It is weird. I used to dislike the saying Life is for the Living, it seemed callous, dismissing those we've lost. But I understand the truth of it. As long as we're here, we're still writing the stories of our life, that doesn't mean those who are gone have no impact, but their personal story has ended and we have to go on.
Yeah, it is brutal but at the same time it is life. That is what it is. It would be nice if it didn't end but it does so all that matters is living it well and loving those close to you.
Apart from the wankers, of course :OD
In the dreaming we go on.
I love this:
But the soul, it does remember
Keeps it safely tucked away
In a corner made of blankets
Two young girls will always be.
My sister at 18 was murdered in 1975. It's been almost half a century now.
Sisters #2 and #3 died six months apart. Quite recently. Ages 63 and 62.
I have one sister left.
You woke up from a dream about your sister. I've been told (by someone from a school of metaphysics who conducted research on it) that when visited by a loved one who does not speak in a dream, we were visited by the spirit of that departed loved one.
My mom sometimes dreams of her three daughters, and they often speak, but maybe that doesn't mean they're not visiting her in her dreams.
I feel your pain.... thanks for the poem.
Murdered! I thought a car accident was traumatic, the suddenness of it, but murder...that must have been unimaginably difficult for you and your family.
And now two more sisters, I'm sorry, that has to be so hard. Were they ill, or was it unexpected? The past 18 months there has been a lot of unexpected loss among the people I know. And not among a predicted demographic, seems one shock after another.
That's very interesting. The first couple of years in particular I had many dreams of her that she didn't speak in. Along with other supernatural things that occurred in waking life. I plan to write a story about that time period sometime soon.
Your poor mom. Hard enough to lose siblings, but outliving children is terrible :(
Not just murder, but she was missing for months, then found at last (so many are never found, and Not Knowing is worse than knowing). Her killers were never apprehended. They walk free today. They're grandpas. Of the accomplices, 3 of 4 "persons of interest" are now dead. It's a very long and complicated story, and nobody was arrested, just free to kill again.... and they did.... then moved to Vegas.
Second sister was sick with leukemia for 27 years.
Third sister was the marathon runner and fitness buff and super achiever, the one we figured would live to be 150. No one could have imagined she'd be the one struck down by cancer. Gone six months after the diagnosis. A brutal, vicious, ugly, insanely painful six months....
Sudden death is a blessing, I swear, having seen invalids suffering for months and years.
We all hope to die peacefully in our sleep, I suppose, or while parachuting from high in the sky.
Demential is the worst. I've seen parents of my h.s. classmates, five years in a nursing home, not knowing their own children.... why don't they die... why.... why....
Thanks for the kind words, and may your sister continue to visit you in your dreams, @dreemit!
Congratulations @dreemit! You received a personal badge!
You can view your badges on your board and compare yourself to others in the Ranking
Check out the last post from @hivebuzz: