Dina and Dan in Separate Nuptials

Laurence calls to tell me we are divorced
& what is divorce more than a bucket of
icicles, the way in which the Polar Bear Swim
happens every year in February the February
of the coldest of seasons, I can't help but
be weary of the coldest of seasons, how
it sets in the bones like wood frames
on fire how when we were younger
and our Fathers would cut our textbooks
up because they did not want us smarter
than them but we were already smarter
than them and the Fathers cut the books
up with school scissors, how they cut
our hair, with the same violence,
the snips and then the nothing, the
snips and then the bangs, we have
long hair and then it doesn't grow
and then we have long hair again

The mother with the stroke, the mother who had the
stroke and now who cannot speak from her left side
of her mouth, how a stroke can bleed what bleeds
inside of a stroke, what is a harp, how do you play

Outside a president's funeral
we are in our nation's capital
we are in our state's capital
we are capitol upon capital
I now live in capitol hill
but in another state in the west
what is west but a direction
you were only in in story, fantasy,
what is a lie but a direction
you were only in story, fantasy
what is a lie but a capital
what is a language but capital
what kind of capital is capitol

On the train to the apartments and my Aunt Ann
says do not speak to the man from apartment B17
because he tried to molest your cousin the
other day tried to get her to go home with him
to take some pictures, I'll cut his nuts off Ann says
I'll cut his nuts off

Outside a president's funeral,
you quit your job, you are not going back
you tell me after we sign the papers in this
here Big Easy I'm done you say and I can't
believe how big your curls are, your body
a ouroborus, your curls are so black, black
and I run my fingers through them,
I pull your mouth until your teeth
bleed from the gum. What is the capitol
of Louisiana, are we in it, is it time
I say, the Marigny we are lost we cannot
hail a cab my boots have lost a heel
We have the same curls you and I
we look alike you and I
we look alike in this photograph
we look alike in our tentacles
we look alike in our wombs and testicles
we look alike in our wounds
we look alike in the ways in which we will kill each other, making love like giants
we look alike in our venom
we look alike in our sorrow
we look alike in our violence
I, for one, wish we both had
a white dress on, the one from Nantucket
that was your grandmother's on her wedding day,
the one where she said the color spoiled the silver
it was so virginal, are you so virginal she asked
that day, are you so virginal, will the color
spoil you? she asked has Laurence polished
the silver for your big day, I told him to,
I told him to. Your mother only gained
10 pounds when she had you, 8 pounds
when she had your brother tells me
if I gain more than 10 pounds, I am a fat
good-for-nothing slob, worthless,
in fact, don't even have babies,
it is not worth it, she says.