for Ginny

My sister calls it her Bang Theory:
people look the same day after day,
and then, about every five years,

bang, they change. At age seventy,
she says the Popcorn Plan takes over:
little pops happen daily.

And this explains the stranger I see
in the mirror. Bang, pop, pop, pop!
she no longer reflects the me I know.

I look after her as best I can
since she masquerades around  town
and pretends to be me.

From Marriage and Other Leaps of Faith, (Penciled In, 2015).
Used here with the author’s permission.