Portrait: Sister

Aids-skinny she was, and
the stiff black denim of her
jeans tented up the zipper
panel below her tight-cinched
belt, faux hard-on, as
she sat, heels nearly
to bum, on the low
brick wall, slanging two
brothers safely blinkered
to their chess game,
in front of the chain café,
in the sun,
in the red brick park.

Alexandra Yurkovsky