Rhododendron

I think sister you cursed it it felt
your glare as you passed learning

or remembering the family rumors
that one the size of a dumptruck

loomed outside your dining room and ate
all sunlight for miles around so mine

caught sight of you and your rage
and shrank and the oil green

leaves shrank and its will to live shrank
and it just sits withered and dies bloomless

sister that this one’s cousin
distant cousin you live four states away

sister that this one looks like
a woody molehill to your one’s mountain

or a pinkie toe to a leg but now
a pinkie toe with some odd nail fungus

like an offputting commercial
and I’ve never seen it flower at all

if I robbed a bank would you go
whistling to jail for me don’t answer

that if you do not wish to give me ideas
I will not come and sneer at the stench

of your too thick lilac’s perfume and you
can just come tell this shrub who’s
a good boy he is he is.