The Artist in his Studio

Casts his genetic inheritance on
a girl like a sister to him,
the other actually his sister.
What he got was a lot of canvas-
the length of a room high
or higher if space permitted-
and what he covered
I could tuck under my arm
with the book of sign language
I studied in front of the painting,
inarticulate, and Whistler even quieter,
suggesting the space
between the subjects is now
and then the difference between
favorite and cousin, a retarded
hand movement, or how my sister
learned to cook burning a hand
shaped like e on the stove, not facing me.