The Tale Of Two Sisters Poem by Almedia Knight-Oliver

For many years I've wished you happy birthdays, yet there's something indeed special about this one, because it's a milestone in your life-and mine too!

That we have spent our entire lives together or in proximity comes to mind!
To aid recalling portions of the yesterdays, let's journey back over some countless days and nights we walked to and fro on the dusty trail leading to the gravel road to school and church
…we often would sing, 'How much is that doggie in the window' and echoing more of the 50s:

Let's walk back down the dusty wagon trail again, with our double dates-Joe and Milton, when sap was rising in trees, whilst mama's teenage girls yearned for charming gardeners to make hearts bloom, and not forget to keep
hugs and kisses out of Momma's sight.

Okay, okay, I know you're tired, so let's slow down
We've been traveling a long time...now, admiring the vase- filled birthday roses that call to mind that budding day in May. We boarded the silver streamline, carrying a suitcase apiece, a twine- tied shoebox of fried chicken, both lit into before, the train had barely left the station heading to a place that we had only heard of.
I hadn't long graduated high school; was as fresh as the blooming flowers on the hill, and you just 16 and in high school still.
Momma, after many years, I ask myself still: what were you thinking sending two tame girls, to a feral city to live with a 20 years old sister, renting a single room, and sharing a kitchen and bathroom with another- she hardly knew…?
[Like me]… were you enslaved by your own choices and decisions and needing another or others to amend your regrets and faults? For goodness sake, why am I wondering still?

That Sunday in May 8,1954, my legs felt like rubber, a river of sweat flooded my forehead, and my heart was beating like a drum while climbing up the stairs from below...we reached the landing and the corridor above.Had to wade through an ocean of folks, squeezed our way through Penn Station, in New York City!

Ha, ha! Ora, just imagine the look on our faces when, we stepped out on the sidewalk of 33rd street, smack dab in the shadows of gigantic, never-ending buildings, and on to Brooklyn…
Then on to a place where trials and errors were not the best, followed crowds, not knowing where they were going.
Watched setting suns fade against our spirit and making them poor…

Within a decade our family had increased by two:
An older and younger brother had migrated too.
Several years later, death ended their lives, and leaving their tragic tales behind…lastly, our baby
sister completed our exodus from Mississippi…

Now, a half-century has passed, and our generation in decline:
Now, four sisters rest in the glow of the sunset
Laughing, crying, and singing, and
wondering who'll be next as
we wait for the going down sun.
But nothing is exterminated:
Ruins and death leaves residue.
Everything is a beginning…

Almedia s. knight
February 28,2007

Edited 8/20/2016