No Sister

Dear Sister,

Did I perform badly
Just now
In a tragic
Comedy of errors,
Staged,
White-faced
And skirted by convention;
Forgetting my lines
In an allotted script,
My sister, your no sister?

I was exposed,
Caught in the open
Harsh glare
Of final commitment
Like a rabbit on the road
When I spotted you,
Fleetingly, in the wings,
Engaged elsewhere;
Not here;
Not anywhere near,
My sister, your no sister.

Why do I hear
The hollow echo
Of your laughter,
Haunting, taunting,
In the back room,
Turning sour in my ear;
Morose, non-committal
(We'll see, maybe)
When you answer the phone
My sister, your no sister?

Look!
Even when
I was playing your brother
(you said we were sisters)
Was I ever
Anything else
More or less
Than a frame on the mantel;
An element,
Untouchable,
Irreducible
In your personal myth;
A mover of furniture,
Two disembodied arms,
Empty and broken,
Under a bowed-down back,
My sister, your no sister?

You know,
Don't you that
At our age
You were never
Going to get
A sister by other means
Who bled with your own blood
And wept the tears
Of your kindred spirits keening,
My sister, your no sister?

Bowed,
Bowed down,
I see between my legs
The blood of my own birth
And your betrayal.
In the barren passageway
Between here and then
I find my gift to you
Untouched, unopened.
And is that his picture
Still gathering sacred dust
My sister, your no sister?

Well, no matter,
Tomorrow breaks anew
And then will I wed,
Becoming another man's wife.
But until
And beyond,
I understand
I remain, forever,
My sister, your no sister.