MY SISTER’S
GIFT
We would walk down the
road to the very end of the street,
To the dusty bowl like
depression with scrubby growth. Down the dirt
path,
With horn toads
scattering through the dust and at the center
A small lake and a big
rock at the edge, “Fossil Rock”.
It was “Fossil Rock”
we sat upon to eat
Our picnic lunch and let
the Oklahoma sun
Warm our backs through
our thin summer dresses.
Within the rock were tiny
seashells, bits of fern bones
And a mystery. “How
did they get there?” I wondered.
But you knew, you told me
how the ocean once covered all the land
Even the dry, parched
land around us and that “Fossil Rock” once was
At the bottom of an
inland sea… My! There was a history beyond all the history
Written in the books.
The land would speak if we would only listen.
You opened to me a world
beyond my lifetime,
Beyond all the lifetimes
I could think of.
It was a gift that fueled
my imagination then and
Still shines like a
nugget of gold threaded through in my thoughts
Lighting the way for
understanding myself and my world...
