Pretend I Set You Free

They did not remember, of course,
At least not in any clear and lucid way,
But many years later (as such things are counted)
She said to her brother who was a year younger
“Pretend you are in prison and I come and set you free.”

They were playing in the fort they had built

and furnished together and in which they sometimes
spent their nights listening to the sounds
about which they scared each other and talking
about what might be beyond the stars and whether
it all just kept on going and sometimes
he would listen with a strange thrill to the
rhythmic and deep breathing that told him she
was truly sleeping.

“OK,” he said, just a little reluctant to allow her the 
heroic role, “But didn't I also once set you free?”

“Yes,” she said in order to appease him so they
        could get on with the game.

“Yes, you did.”

And memories touched her place of feeling

like chips of ice melting in her mouth
on a summer afternoon but they eluded
her efforts to bring them into focus as
sharp and clarifying images.