Worlds Apart My twin sister went, I stayed. If I went and she stayed, I think I would always ponder what if I stayed. Yes, wonders lie ahead in new worlds across oceans, but when I read Emily Dickinson, I delight because I have seen how wonder is present in the old and familiar. There is beauty here as well as over there but heartaches come too. My sister has had a hard time of it and so have I. Still, I think I will always ponder what if I went.
The Old Place The Old Place, a poem you had On mind but not on paper, flutters Before me in this way. Dad at the barn, Mom in the kitchen, Sisters at play, chickens before the coop, Melons rising in the field. Summers were Portuguese festas And dances; winters, stories of The Azores around a wood-burning stove And wonder of things to come. But the old place is gone now and so Are you. Now we have a new place – Orange skies at noon and the passing Of character Across the land.
Stanley Toledo writes verse and plays, which are performed in theatres in the U.S. and aboard. His work has been published in Ponder Review, Santa Ana River Review, Luminous Expression, The Martian Chronicle and Sage Cigarettes. He lives in the California delta.
Grand Little Things 