summer sister..

I wake in lemon light
a cup of tea on the drawer beside my pillow,
birdsong,
the first swim of the day,
lying on cold sand listening to the sea,
lying on a straw beachmat with the smell of pressed hay coming all the way from China,
reading,
the feel of a good biro,
words spilling out of my head and onto the page,
listening to my brothers' and sisters' voices,

missing one - Michele's....

the warmth of Davey’s head as he leans against my chest,
Liz’s smile when we reach the verandah at Indented Head,
riding her old bike beside the water all the way to St Leonard’s,
flying down sand tracks and stopping off at the pier,
sifting through a carpet of shells,
finding driftwood in the shallows,
getting stuck in the supermarket at Ocean Grove and not caring- using the time to study faces and bodies and finding some bright thing in each one of them

being in the company of the clan..
how different it is without her..