Double Alpine Butterfly Knot (Photo Credit: Layhands.com)
Family Ties
“One Body, Two Souls!” the headline blares
above the photo of a girl with two heads,
the first kissing the other on her cheek. Or maybe,
in ontological confusion, they’re two girls joined
below the neck or twins who couldn’t bear to part,
even as an egg. A diagram specifies more
than we should know: two spines that fuse
at the pelvis; two hearts with common circulation;
a single vagina. Brittany loves milk.
Abigail hates it. They go to school, swim,
ride a bike. A perfectly normal abnormality,
the article affirms, whose Self-love equals,
by natural irony, Other-love. We leave them
as, together, on their sneaker, they tie a double knot.
*Click on the audio icon below to hear Malcolm Farley read his poem “Family Ties.”
WordRustler 