this home
where sane brother
and ****** sister
ate sliced apples
played pool
and swam only
at night

a home so inadequately haunted
we invented a previous family
mother, father, a lame child
all three suicides

it was the lame child
we dwelled on
so much so
our real mother
sent our most current father
to the backyard
with a shovel

brother went mad to see it
and sister began to throw up
in the mornings
then disappeared
and left two notes

one confessed pregnancy
and one bulimia

I lied, too
but am not poor
and will not say
a brother
went mad
overseas

start with your mother’s handwriting

I love my own because when her children
were naked
saying so
was a sin

instead, she called them

rare