Sunbathing with My Sister

I'm cursed to be a German woman
in America and dark. My bones
are big and don't fit silk nylons and tight skirts.
In spiked heels, I feel preposterous.
On this bright beach, I see each missed spot.
Swimsuits make the black hairs awkward.

I'm the image of my bachelor great aunts,
twins so fat they were buried in piano
boxes somewhere in Nebraska.
Beneath the murmurings of Interstate 84's
traffic I hear their black taffeta rustle
in corn silk, stalk, and ponderous seed as if,
bone to bone, their bulk rises within me.

In antique family photos, they stand at opposite
edges, wedged against the sides like weighted
book-ends, fat backs pushing the frame. The frail men
sit ill at ease before the props—the fake Grecian columns,
the delicate Boston fern—I imagine mutterings in German,
see them frowning before the flash. In the central
chair, a woman smiles, dainty and white as her wedding dress,
surrounded by dour men and women and backed
by my great-grandfather, the one she'd just married.

Afraid I'm burning, I take off my sunglasses
and stand, knowing my sister lies
behind me, smiling, flaunting blond hair
against her scarlet towel. My great aunts'
grimace is heavy on my lips. I lumber to the sea.

“Sunbathing With My Sister,” a sample poem from Another Message You Miss the Point Of, by Donelle Ruwe.

Chapbook, poetry.
Foreword by Dick Allen.
Chosen by Dick Allen as winner of the Second Annual Camber Press Poetry Chapbook Award.
22 pages, 14 poems.
Saddle stitch binding.
Four-color cover, acid-free paper throughout.
ISBN 0-9727455-5-6

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