Gabriella Brand

http://www.roommagazine.com/issues/siblings

Garbled

She tries to forgive the sister

who slapped her by omission

when the others were invited up

that long hot weekend

flies buzzing over the potato salad

the badminton net sagging

everyone sitting on the old webbed garden chairs

or squeezed together on the garden glider

chewing the family fat, succulent as pork,

while she was left behind like a child’s sock

under the bed.

She tries to forgive but instead

swallows her pain,

sucks on it for years

like a hard candy

and finally lets it lodge in her throat

so whenever she speaks

her voice sounds bumpy

and bruised and no one

can really understand

much of what she says