destiny existed even in / paradisaic photograph / cursive of our youth / here, my two sisters /

flowered in nightgowns / our mother stitched / here, I spun like a web / under fluorescent bulbs

that spared no one / what threaded us together but the fate of / blood / the youngest of us /

held the spindle / the oldest severed the string / only two when her hair withdrew / how time works

/ how grief works / unturning / as inheritance / the white cells strung like garland / down a banister /

how could she know then / lonely in orbit / chased like prey on the playground / draping my curls

over her bare head / I would grow leafless too / I would be right behind her