her furry flank rises
and falls softly, as breath.
the wheeze and drift

of pink nose, neatly
muffled by curling paw.
where she is, here — where i

have placed her. her face
today is altered, injured,
i note; from stepping out

of wood-and-bone dimensions.
to meet another sister — dark
of velvet, sinister of scent, who knows

the grass as blades;
the searing fear of blood;
the growl of God at stake.

while she is light — as spots
on creamy white, strawberry
twizzler tongue — and popular.

her prey is floating feathers.
and yet, her heart is mean
as poverty, as maniacal envy.

black sister, with heart of pink;
pink sister — black-hearted:
the dueling dialect of shadow rose.

tender beings, engendered
by pain; unviable, beyond
their quantitative shells.

//