A RESPONSE 2

whatever we write will be written
and whatever lies in the aheadofourselves will stay there:
i already have a style guide; you read it on my floor

(and though you disagree with it
i respect our differences because
like everything else i love you).

you may have whatever reminds you of home:
everything you do reminds me of home
because my home was so much less of a home—

your mother wrote poetry and painted
but my mother didn't have time for all that
inbetween daughters and a son

your father studied something
and my father only studied
the lawn which he had to cut

so now i will be like my father and give you my cut
and, like my mother, i will write another little tercet
inbetween a thousand other little daughters and sons:

i dream of being your blanket in the winter,
your shade in the spring,
and o so much more in nightfall allyearround.