Brothers And Sisters Poem by Jimmy Scanlon

We travel together
Our shy footsteps slowly becoming
Words and phrases
In beach sand mimicking
The afternoon light of November
Our lopsided looks wander out to sea
Where sunlight throws itself off every blade of water
Trying to explain the dust
of knots and fractures
our mother left of her in us
Like we were squeezing toothpaste from our past
rubbing our fingers along the glossy shoulders of gentle
olive shells
As if it were cotton
softening our childhood voices
That still walk with us