all in it together

three brother
and three sisters, most
of them
in the wind, doing their thing.

hardly a word comes back
or goes out to any of them.

I remember how we lived
as children,
stuffed into a small duplex
house

off the beaten track.

one bathroom. the absent father,
the panicked mother.

we didn't think much of it.
the poverty,
the lack of space
or privacy.

we were all in it together,
surviving on the good
will of the church
and neighbors,

at peace
for the most part,

strange how good things
come to an end.