Seattle's Little Sister

 

 

More river than ocean.

Not so much Tesla as diesel.

It’s more dirt and resilience

than computers and rain.

 

It’s a little like

the B-side cut on a 45,

not sounding much like the band

you know at all.

 

But like a paternal twin,

you can see the resemblance

in certain light.  And it is light—

named for the “Children of the Sun.”

 

It’s the birthplace of Father’s Day, 1910,

by a woman named Sonora Dodd.

And me. 

Which now feels

like a prophecy

 

of where I am meant to be

as I write this poem,

from the Sonoran Desert,

in the Valley of the Sun,

just before Father’s Day.

 

It’s true what they say—

you can leave places,

but your heart never leaves home.

 

 

© 2026 Jennifer Wagner

Note: My birthplace, Spokane, WA, is on the “other side” of Washington state and is very different from rainy Seattle.  Where I now live in Arizona suits me like a midsummer day.

 

 dVerse oln

 

image above created by me using substack image generator