My Five Big Sisters

Effie’s love of the exotic lands her with

Some ancient Greek guy named Spontaneous,

An improv actor or gigolo, or probably both.

Riley leaves the playground in a fit of rage,

Frizzles her braids with a stolen lighter,

Throws her shoes at a taxi, lies on the double-yellow.

Veda is telling her friends why Nubian goats are needy,

Why they should all become Zoroastrians, and that a dux

Is a Roman general, not that fucking Sarah Fletcher!

Paige cruises about as if she’s a small nation

With a high life expectancy and

A well-trained standing army.

Adeline is demanding her bovine, boorish boyfriend

Read Claudia Rankine’s ‘Citizen’, look up solipsism,

And write ‘love’ not ‘luv’ when he texts her.