Oh, you think I write
of Emily, Charlotte, and Anne,
tragic young deaths,
lives snuffed out
caring for neglectful father Patrick,
wastrel brother Branwell.
No, I tell of older sisters
with forgotten names,
Maria and Elizabeth, who died
at Cowan Bridge School
from hunger and cold.
Patrick spirited the surviving sisters home
to create Jane Eyre, Heathcliff, Agnes Gray,
and assorted poems by fake male authors.
History has a way of raveling.
Ah, but that unraveling leaves life
full of mystery and grief.
This is for you, Maria and Elizabeth.
What might you have penned
had Patrick repented sooner?
Originally published in Rat's Ass Review