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Sisters
- Red Hen Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
60 The Alphabet of Love SISTERS The dull sister Wore a twisted smile, Revealing a row of false teeth And a decayed bridge, From which she contemplated suicide Almost every afternoon, When she was not chasing The mailman down the road— Like a bloodhound— Her keen sense of smell Sniffing the perfumed letters Sweethearts sent across the state. The wicked sister Denied she had a sibling And worked at Woolworth Behind the shiny silver counter, Serving grilled cheese sandwiches Each sweltering day, While she spent evenings In the motel rooms of hungry men Who paid handsomely to see How she split her sex Before their startled eyes. Bart Edelman 61 The morning they were found Inside the small frame house On the outskirts of town, They were locked in a lover’s embrace, Joined by the separation Which kept them apart— Troubled no longer By the complication of birth: A father’s wrath And a mother’s silence; So that in the end All they knew was each other. ...