26.30 ENVY

National Poetry Month 30/30 Challenge Home Stretch Late Night Postings.

ENVY
After Sabrina Adikes

She is the only girl
my brother loves.
She is iridescent
and thin, as a butterfly’s
gown. She is staying
in the house for a week,
pushing her food around
on the plate, laughing
at perfect decibel. Spraying
his sheets with her perfume,
adequately named Love Spell,
so even after she leaves
she doesn’t leave.
When they are out
of the house, I sneak
into her cosmetic bag;
it is a candy store
for the homely
and plain. I steal
a palette of eye shadow.
(Still have it. Still 
sometimes try to paint myself
her shade of worth.)
A baseball game is on
and she is so perfect
pretending, convincingly,
that she cares.
The boys want to
carry the better TV
from upstairs
to the living room.
When she offers to help
someone utters No,
Megan can help.
You, you can be
the antenna.