My Sister  My sister enacts meal provider, family clustered  around the table.  Sustenance for body and heart, hollowed   out by this year.  Muffled emptiness behind my ribs muted  by video calls.  Strands across the Pacific from my island  to her wooded home.  My sibling draws me back to Canada, closed  pine borders.   Each call a step closer, but still stranded  on a rock in the ocean.    ** The Toad  Heavy rains, another toad in the garden, poison  to my dog.  Buffo catching, my new pastime, followed  by a marsh trip.  Bye Mr. Toad. No whimsical talking character,  Wind in the Willows cute.  Instead a mammoth, warty body, with venom  sacs behind his ears.  Toad number seven in a lineage, a hopping  invading force.  Beady eyes, fire-plug body, strong jumping legs,  garden bane in Hawaii.  Islands replete with outsiders: frogs, rats, goats,  even tourists.  If the toads arrived with…

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