Saturday, December 1, 2018

Death Stalked My Sister

This is the news station my sister Kess works for covering the accident that killed my other sister Joy. I so love & admire my youngest sister Kess for being willing to go on camera & be interviewed to make sure Joy’s story was told right. I doubt I could have done it.

https://www.waaytv.com/content/news/Family-remembers-Huntsville-woman-killed-in-tragic-crash-501291251.html

This is the poem I wrote:

And Followed Her Inside

To oceans and rivers
She was forever tied
To water and drowning
To death that ever lied
Until it drove a pickup truck
And followed her inside

Joy was my first best friend
I was her annoying shadow
She liked to tease and instigate
That’s how her love did show
We played at being mermaids
Sirenas of ocean flow

We learned to speak a language
Not our native tongue
Living in Venezuela
When we were both quite young
She had an ear for music
For HER Spanish sung

To oceans and rivers
She was forever tied
To water and drowning
To death that ever lied
Until it drove a pickup truck
And followed her inside

For five years we lived overseas
And such adventures had
Four lively sisters
With our mom and dad
We had a sheltered life
Before things went so bad

She once stopped me from drowning
I’d ignored my father’s call
I walked until my foot did slip
Atop a waterfall
She reached her hand and grabbed me
And saved me from the fall

To oceans and rivers
She was forever tied
To water and drowning
To death that ever lied
Until it drove a pickup truck
And followed her inside

The first of the tragedies
Came with deafening sound
In Puerto Ordaz Venezuela
A firecracker round
Was thrown in through a window
And landed on the ground

Right next to Joy’s desk
Exploding by left ear
The world went blank and silent
And nothing could she hear
For almost seven days
Before the ear did clear

To oceans and rivers
She was forever tied
To water and drowning
To death that ever lied
Until it drove a pickup truck
And followed her inside

The second strange occurrence
Came falling from the sky
Joy and her friend Jef
Were merely riding by
A road construction worker
Fell from a bridge on high

She thought her friend was dead
So much blood was all around
The roof had buckled inwards
With a devastating sound
But the blood was from the faller
The friends each other found

To oceans and rivers
She was forever tied
To water and drowning
To death that ever lied
Until it drove a pickup truck
And followed her inside

She studied to teach Spanish
High school teacher through and through
The students they all loved her
It was what she loved to do
Until they took that fateful trip
With tragedy so true

They went to Costa Rica
To take in all the sights
They learned and shared so much
Through several days and nights
The last day they went rafting
Beyond the city lights

To oceans and rivers
She was forever tied
To water and drowning
To death that ever lied
Until it drove a pickup truck
And followed her inside

But the rapids were unkind
And though she was a swimmer
She might’ve tried to save a man
And dove without a glimmer
Of what was waiting for her
Or how she’d not remember

Afterwards her brain was lost
Her care was everything
Our mother took the lion’s share
With all of us helping
Until our mommie’s heart did fail
Sister Q the new life ring

To oceans and rivers
She was forever tied
To water and drowning
To death that ever lied
Until it drove a pickup truck
And followed her inside

My sisters they were sleeping
When death came to entice
It shook the worlds foundation
With vengeance and with vice
Such devastating power
Crashing walls like paper rice

Kess my youngest sister
Was just two rooms away
As walls came falling down
And plumbing broke to spray
Dust and smoke were flying
As she ran into the fray

To oceans and rivers
She was forever tied
To water and drowning
To death that ever lied
Until it drove a pickup truck
And followed her inside

In the air to Mexico
I heard not the alarm
Ringing through the stratosphere
Our Joy has come to harm
My feet kissed foreign soil
As the world lost all its charm

My anger is an unhinged beast
Wants to destroy that man
Who stole my sister from this world
Without a thought or plan
I want to hit him with a truck
And end him if I can.

To oceans and rivers
She was forever tied
To water and drowning
To death that ever lied
Until it drove a pickup truck
And BURIED her inside

And yet all around my rage
Such blessings do abound
Joy would see the joy in it
Just stop and look around
For as she’d say in her own way
They always can be found


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