The Sand Hill Review          http://www.sandhillreview.org       2001 November

 

To You Who Are 6537 Miles and Two Weeks Away

 

Sleeping alone takes getting used to,

16 years sharing a bed,

the smell of you

always in the sheets.

It's been three weeks

since I came to the house of your mother.

 

I watch the moon smile,

slip behind Shinobuyama's shoulders.

I hear your brother stumble up the stairs,

talk to himself,

trip over the bathroom slippers.

Our sister-in-law scurries

out of their room, shushes him calm.

The muscles of my body ache.

I twist the pillow tight

against my belly.

 

Beverly Acuff Momoi

 

NOTE:  Shinobuyama is a mountain in Fukushima, Japan.