Sister tongue -

They call it la niña,
“the girl”,
even though they have never seen it.
Rising from those cold waters, hovering in the spheres drifting heedless of continental passageways or
national meanderings, it causes the longest winters this city
has known in years.
From Peru it whispers to the winds,
speaks in a foreign tongue to the temperate drafts,
convincing our Spring to be patient,
to allow this chilling we must survive.
La niña phenomenon.
Like Lauren waking in Virginia,
and deciding that once again she does not have time to call
or write or think
about him today,
and more time passes.
Like Lauren finally calling late one Sunday evening and speaking into the air,
her voice caught in digital pauses
and replayed at his leisure,
later.
Her words spoken in Virginia reach to Illinois and cause
an unexpected coldness,
an anger extended beyond her bounds. Love will do this
with answering machine messages.
Waiting for warmer weather shortens
tempers and lifespans,
waiting for a loved one
only shortens memory.
The next morning is humid as he rises,
so he takes the phone and places
his voice in the air, across the boundaries,
and the anger is filtered over other lands,
until the word
“Hermana ”
settles after the beep.





GLS
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