25 of 30, 2016

Zan

My sister is the vessel
of life's gaudy taxonomy:

quetzal, lioness. A word
and she has form

of the coral snake.
Its form was always

in her: the lavish bands,
narrow tooth, the blacklist

of its poison, and I
am the other ring--needful,

surplus. A fall of rain
with no field to catch it.

from a prompt by Bernadette McComish