TankaTuesday – Sister

My submission for #TankaTuesday. This week’s challenge was to pick any syllabic form, and write about your sister (or sister-figure).

I chose a septet – seven stanzas with seven syllables each. It made me think of the musical Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. So keeping it consistent with a sibling theme made a certain amount of sense. 😉 Here it is:

Sister

Jagged thoughts to mar the soul

Traversing the dark ashes

Of long dead criticism

And of laughter and red wine

A whisper of a kind word

A lone watercolor bird

The silent testimony

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As you may guess, my sister and I have a tenuous relationship.  Its not overly dramatic.  We don’t fight, but we also don’t talk much even though she lives less than 10 miles away.

She’s my only sister, and six years my senior.  As a child, I looked up to her. I tried to emulate her in almost every way. I remember how mad I was when mom wouldn’t let me choose cello as my instrument when I was in fifth grade. “Do something different than Pat,” my mom ordered. I sulkingly chose the trumpet.

Compliments coming from my sister are hard-earned. Sometimes these compliments don’t manifest in words. When mom sold the big house in 2003, she dispersed many of her belongs amongst my brother and sister. I was living in FL at the time.  When I came up to visit, I noticed a watercolor painting hanging in my sister’s living room.

I am an okish artist. Once in awhile, I hit pay dirt and create something really good. One of those times came in eighth grade art class. It was a seagull flying up out of some tall sea grass. My mom thought it was spectacular and had it framed. But it’s my mom. Isn’t that what all moms do?

After all those years, my sister took it and hung it on her living room wall. I said something about it and she said, “oh, yeah – I’ve always liked that painting. “

Wow… a compliment from Pat.

It’s not all bad. 😉