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24 apishapa my heart shaped sister i. the apishapa is an old woman that flows south of pueblo only when the rains come wind and thunder for generations and then finally the rain my mother waves to me i am seven i imagine her seven floors up waving from her hospital room i stand in the rainy parking lot silent except for the far off southern thunder my mother has lost what would have been my younger sister my mother told me later that the heart shaped miscarriage was a girl younger heart shaped sister who did not live to be born into this rain soft but hardening as i wave up to the seventh floor the priest probably the same priest who drives all day sunday giving communion comes to the hospital in the pockets of his black jacket holy water his shoulders wet with rain he moves quickly to baptize apishapa my heart shaped sister 25 ii. i fish alone bring what i catch to my mother she loves fish the crispy skin soft flesh so barely clinging to the malleable bones i am alone except for my mother a river which always flows her voice crescendos over rocks and sand bars plays off the water in a loud sad key her voice is thunder in the middle of the night ...

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