On Writing a Novel
If I knew how to write a novel,
it would be about two sisters
in a big, fractured family.
They’re in the middle.
One tries, all her life,
to understand the other.
She thinks of her often
usually with great yearning
but sometimes, if she’s honest,
with disdain.
I’d put in all kinds of complications,
interesting, witty, likeable characters,
an alarming plot twist.
The dialogue would never falter.
In the end, we’d see that the sister
also had yearned for our heroine.
Their yearning had been mutual
all those lost years.