“The Lake”
Dusk has fallen, and only the lights
from town shine on this cloudy night.
I gaze across the lake, the trees cast shadows,
that resemble nightmares, to some, I suppose.
But I close my eyes and a forgotten scent
reminds me of the campfire nights we spent.
The taste of treats charred over those flames!
Then, while mama called out our names,
in a wide-eyed sugar rush we ran
everywhere in darkness unafraid.
I could never keep up with her.
Just a year older, but she was my hero.
I ran as fast as my legs could go,
but she was a bird in flight it seemed.
My big sister. My Sissy.
In the fall, we chased each other through the trees.
Under our feet, the crunch of fallen leaves.
In the winter, papa warned us to stay away
from the not-quite-frozen-enough lake.
By spring, we rushed to pick flowers,
a simple task we stretched to hours.
And when summer made itself known,
the lake was our second home.
Until that one summer…
sister dared too far,
and no one could bring her back.
What they pulled from the
once warm water was not her.
She was gone.
But still, all around me, her memory is here.
Her giggles caught on the air.
The daring gleam in her eyes.
The gritty dirt smeared on her jeans
from our latest enterprise.
She was too wild and too free…
A tear slides down my face,
frigid and lonely in the night air.
An owl hoots in the distance,
asking a question that I can answer.
The only one I can answer. Who?
Her name was Sissy.
Note: This poem was written as an entry to a contest on AllPoetry.com. You can see it here. To enter the contest, poets had to write an original submission inspired by one of the three abstract images found here, while also using all five senses in the poem. Can you tell which one I used for inspiration? Let me know in the comments.