Mercifully the calendar continually flips pages
Inability to cope is eased in stages
Sister, my sister, why did you leave?
Silently leaving us all to grieve
I cling to our phone call from the night before
Neither of us could know there wouldn't be more
Generous as always, you allowed me to bore

Mr. Bush called it 'Operation Jumpstart'
Yuma, Arizona, where fate broke my heart

Still relentlessly permeating my tortured mind
Is the phone call from Dad imparting the find
Sweet Kirsten had passed out and died from the heat
Thirty-six years of age, a life hardly complete
Each time I am reminded she died for her country
Relief comes no easier, however selfish of me

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submitted via fanstory.com in the Acrostic Poetry contest for May 2008. Rules were supplied as follows:

Write a poem where the first letter of each line spells out a word (downwards), an Acrostic Poem.