Theresa Senato Edwards
Excerpt from Wing Bones
Talking to the Youngest Sister About Her Oldest Sister
a baby
when you vomit in her mouth:
a (w)hole you didn’t know would
curse your son for living,
his humerus shattered,
but in her way forgive him
~
her silence steady through the foyer
you heard her long before her movement
a long aisle
the front of a church
to her stained-glass heart
broken
then she is “matched data
generated from a blood sample”
not ready for your funeral
Talking to the Youngest Sister About Her Middle Sister
When you had breast cancer, she called you
the only time
you knew she’d call
like children’s
tin-can conversation
she saved mother’s thickest bluest yarn, put the knitting bag
of memories in the right-triangle closet under the steps,
found that one blue vein that mothers saved for daughters
through death, your mother tightened the string,
a story’s presence in the can’s metal—
~
and when she walks into your wake,
she knows what’s on the brink of being gone
Remembering Father
typewriter, near her window, small room,
when that’s all there was
your father told you he never wanted sons
he told her the jungle moved and he shot
into waves, green stars melting
beneath black grass
sisters sharing after years
of nothing
all you smell is her perfume
close your eyes soak,
cheeks extend upward
her scent always reminds
Sparking the Youngest Sister’s Memory
Her Oldest Sister’s Apartment
calling out her window to you
for tea
you were supposed to be learning
when you heard her calling
crack the black-squared remedy, smoke it quiet
on the hill of nothing matters
across from her beautiful third-floor windows
still left
in your world
BREAK IN SEQUENCE
forensic scientists study the anatomy
of a bird
they gather the carcass left in mid-flight,
pose the necessary questions,
amplify and sequence the mt DNA,
code the curvatures,
compare fractures
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
Fragments of Her Middle Sister’s Fear
flying things INSIDE,
especially birds
doesn’t consider the bones in wings
never asks, “why become obsessed
with bones?”
but remembers the sun through
that churched
stained glass
Her Middle Sister as Someone Else
She wears matching bra and underwear
you told her you read about a woman who did this,
but the matched woman
never fell through rain
or cried
or became rain
or felt the crack in her sternum every night
because she decided at 18
to weave
a yarned body armor
even though her heart’s in place again,
after decades she still hears that voice
like a cygnet’s cry that will never know its mother—
her sorrow
recedes
much slower than her life
indeterminacy the secret of
accepting
middle sister’s advice:
“seek what will help a heart play its banjo joyfully,
but remember grief”
Her Oldest Sister’s Absence
When she stopped talking to you
you wanted to get cancer,
again—
still in those first two years after surgery,
why not look for digital magnifications: enlarged helix-shaped calcifications
open doors to lockdown,
“both strands of the amplified regions were sequenced and compared with each other to ensure fidelity of the data”: breast bone DNA—fractional evidence of BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes
BUT no harmful mutation
BREAK IN SEQUENCE
your friend Gloria’s voice
through the phone, she feared mice on
her hospital room wall
her cancer fragmented / mutated
already,
no need for autopsy
you watched her each day dematerialize—
out of that nowhere,
texted your husband and sons,
“I love you”
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
Notes
- An earlier version of "Talking to the Youngest Sister About the Middle Sister" was first published at Miriam's Well as part of a Q&A.
- Earlier versions of “Remembering Father” and “Break in Sequence / forensic scientists study…” were first published in Gargoyle Magazine, Print Issue # 60.
- The dialogue in retrospect in “Her Middle Sister as Someone Else” was sparked by the following Kim Addonizio lines from “Cigar Box Banjo”:
The heart may be a trashy organ,
but when it plucks its shiny banjo
I see blue wings in the rain. - The quotes in “Talking to the Youngest Sister About Her Oldest Sister” and in “Her Oldest Sister’s Absence” were taken from an article summary of “Identification of human remains by amplification and automated sequencing of mitochondrial DNA,” International Journal of Legal Medicine, K. M. Sullivan, R. Hopgood, and P. Gill.