Sister

I pulled the sheets back over your mattress.

Their floral print
matches the season ever so nicely.

I won't tell
your father the slightest thing about it

that would be cataclysmic
and that
of course
is putting it lightly.


Catch me as I rise
into the unknown
without you

or I'll take all that I know about you
under sighs of "I'll have to do without you."

I've watched
young men squirm and squeeze
under your cotton sheets
burning holes in them with
cigarettes.

They all
took your soft blue bed for granted
and I know you couldn't stand it
although too shy to demand it.

Scold them as they crawl
out of the well-known
without you

or they'll take all that they wanted from you
and they'll leave
never again to love you.

Remember
the tall one with the crooked smile
who was so terrible and lithe
that you couldn't resist him?

Punctuating his clever kindness
he cried out

"My lovely highness
can we put this all behind us?

Because you can't keep a man on a leash

and besides, failure now makes your
victory sweet
tomorrow.

So watch me as I rise
into the unknown
without you

and I'll take all I never felt about you
to a garden where green trees sprout you."