The Red-haired Family

 …dark          and cloudy                                                 
surrounded
by rills                     

at his in-laws’
sleeping                                                        
in something—               
a cross                  
                                  between a car and a house
moving
 driving
                      thinking of      a teenage woman
                                         with straight red hair

                                                                         blue eyes
for whom
he is responsible...

...He takes her                                                           
to his old neighbor’s house
                      on the cul-de-sac where he was raised
where he leaves her 
                                               with a note

asking the red-haired family
to take care of her
and he thinks                                 
                              this is all very reasonable

Later
                                                 Hours? Years?
he comes back to find                                         
they have accepted her as their own

She has a sister now                                     
curly red hair
                                        and eyes the same color blue
fifteen

He feels the love and care of a parent
for one sister        He feels need
and desire

                         for the other