Tapestry

Hearing the word of your passing

was a deep drawn vibrato of a violin string

piercing through the still air

unlocking a montage of core memories

My sister…

Those words suddenly carry a different meaning

This montage transforms into a tapestry

filled with moments throughout our history

Each thread, a laughter woven in and out

forever capturing the moment

creating an image in this fabric of memories

Within this tapestry,

there’s a BMW riding through the streets of DC

You holding me by the Christmas tree

Being the flower girl in your wedding

A pumpkin patch in a field of woes

The words ‘my little pumpkin’ only sounded right

when spoken in your tone

But, most importantly, within this tapestry

spread about sporadically

are songbirds singing, singing, and singing

mimicking the deep drawn vibratos

of sweet violin strings

Only you could sing such beautiful melodies

The days following your passing

became a long drawn bow across a cello string

Sunken and deep reverberating through me

and now a tear appears where my heart should be

in my tapestry

My sister…

Those words suddenly carry a different meaning

Days gone…

I wondered if you could hear me

Then, one day, I heard a songbird sing

It was the day after I met Ms. Pumpkin

Deep down, I knew it was you

And this songbird

was singing, singing, and singing

just like the ones in my tapestry

mimicking the deep drawn vibratos

of sweet violin strings

I know it was you singing that beautiful melody

If you think a songbird sounds beautiful now,

you should hear a songbird when it finds peace

Press play to listen to the reading

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© Kelly Michelle Thomas 2026. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means without the written permission of the author. No generative artificial intelligence (AI) was used in the writing of this work. The author expressly prohibits any entity from using this publication to train AI technologies to generate text, including, without limitation, technologies capable of generating works in the same style or genre as this publication. The author reserves all rights to license uses of this work for generative AI training and development of machine learning language models

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