The Plante Sisters, Washed
This is Leah.
And Becky.
They are sisters. Not mine, but close.
We grew up in Charleston.
South Carolina.
Bible Belt and Mind Your Manners.
That was about a decade ago.
When I began to know them.
Now, I’m here in Boston.
And Becky lives a ten minute walk down Tremont.
Leah often visits from New York City.
Once, last summer, I made their portraits by the Commons.
I think it was about to rain.
I got the photographs printed at the drugstore on the corner.
To have something to hold. Doubles.
Then they got washed.
In with my dirty thongs
And socks that belonged to boys I used to love.
It wasn’t an accident.
Though, they’d been in my pocket for a while.
I made more.
Cleaned them again.
And again.
And again.
I wonder if they are more like the real thing this way.
Good girls fold the wash.
But I have changed my mind about that.