Revised! Poem: "Sister"

deafbajagal

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Sister,
remember that dark sticky night
we caught the fireflies
in Mason jars with rusty, punched lids?

Our hair was wet from sweat
and our hands red
from writing with sticks;
black from the tire swing
Daddy had promised to hang
on the warped oak tree.
One day, he said. One day.

It was there, remember,
where the white fairies
bid their farewells to the moonless sky.

Momma's screams finally stopped,
and the glass door shattered.
The red and the black and the blue
all came together
like painted motor oil
which never dries.

It was that night
we had forgotten.
The fireflies we caught,
trapped in a glass world,
died.
 
I'm normally not one for poetry, but this was excellent! When did you write it? What was your insperation for it?
 
In today's paper is the story of a murder-suicide, husband beat wife to death with a hammer, then killed himself. Two children in the house at the time. That is what this poem made me think of. It is beautiful, but the part about the mother's screams...that makes it all come together. I would like to know what the poet's inspiration was as well.
 
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