Song For A Thin Sister

Either heard or taught

as girls

we thought

that skinny was funny

or a little bit

silly

and feeling a pull

toward the large and the colorful

I would joke you

when

you grew too thin.

But your new kind of hunger

makes me chilly

like danger

for I see you forever retreating

shrinking

into a stranger

in flight—

and

growing up

black and fat

I was so sure

that skinny was funny

or silly

but always

white.