Jennifer
an afterthought,
arrives
in January, 1973,
and begins her journey
in the rented duplex
on Marcil Avenue.
Our mother
beams
like a split plum, Jennifer
is more Canadian
than any of us.
In her eighth
summer
she won't be cornered
by little neighborhood
thugs: Are you a Nazi?
At school
no one will
persuade her to write fuck
in a notebook: It means
I am happy.
She won't
have to surrender
to our father's blitzkrieg
of hands; urine flooding
like guilt through her
pajama bottoms.
She will
learn to love
easily enough,
her heart as big
as the Laurentians.
The 2River View, 4_1 (Fall 1999)