Day 10 of 30

FOR MY SIBLINGS

(two of the three, though I love the baby too!)

my older sister is home from college

shows up at the door

as the tickle monster

her fingers wiggling clawing at my tender belly

typing laughter through my armpits

like a brilliant thesis

until i can’t breathe

while my older brother plugs his ears

and cuts the legs

off a new pair of guess jeans

bleaches them the day after our mother

breaks a check

so that he can avoid

fists in his gut

sucker punches and bully songs

our mother yells

sings them anyway in a broken tone

her best rendition of love

the best she could do at the time

to hold on hold on

wrap her fingers around his throat

tears trickle and tickle the

back of mine

and i wish my sister was there

and i take up for him

and he takes it out on me

and it may not come out of me

or it may later on

and later on i realize

we are a poem

a poem for real with the things

that poems need to be poems

and people need to be family

one that is strange and lovely

one that is ugly and interesting

my older sister and brother

the line and break

the rhythm and scheme

the wonders that somehow

made me letter