Gathering

            For Nel in Morrison’s Sula

I.

Before her: the cold slap

of ass, the man poised as a gun

on plumbknees, the lean cowboy

hips humming the sheets hot

Before her: the woman

moist-mouthed and black

as seal, body stripped casual

as a game of cards

Before her:  the bedroom

bleeding southern-heat;

Sex worn simple as underskin

Before her: the mockery

of day-clothes, housedress hung

arrogant as a noose

Before her: the mute buckling

of genitals into workpants, breasts left

spread and brazen as earth

Before her: the wicked

curve of husband, the thorny

sheath of friend

II.

She chews Today like buckwheat,

gathers the careful weight

of hair from her neck,

Thinks:

God is not woman

Thinks:

Venus sleeps alone

Lauren Fanelli is a student at American University.