Long Lost

an envelope
marked with our family name
in quotation marks

holds a tiny photograph of
a little girl
framed from the shoulders
in a flowered, sleeveless top
hair is bowl-cut
that familiar flat smile

a hand-written letter
from Reno
long, scratchy script
warm, uncertain words
decipherable only by mother

paper echoing through
forty years of silence
exhuming memories of
a child

separated from siblings
the cruel foster family
flashing moments
beginning to surface

this fear, this hope I see
reflecting from her tears
released by her quivering chin