Poem For Ann Poem by Sally Evans

Poem For Ann



Suppose I had stayed in this town or that place,
had travelled further or not so far,
suppose I had stayed in Italy or gone to Greece,
or that it was myself in Hong Kong

and my sister in Nottingham,
that we had met each other’s men,
and had taken opposite paths
which seemed all to be taken by chance,
suppose I had drawn the countryside
and coloured the fell-tops,
suppose she had written descriptions
again and again,

would we be the same or different?
Would we have swapped identities,
and each seen a mirror of the other,
Ann and I?

Put it like that, and I know
that we would not and could not.
Through similarity, we cannot
reach each other’s goals.

Light comes from a different source
and we’re left with friendship,
as other shadows lengthen
and the old one, of rivalry, fades.

Saturday, November 7, 2015
Topic(s) of this poem: sisters
POET'S NOTES ABOUT THE POEM
published in An Assemblance of Judicious Heretics
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