Brenna Womer: i left your blood
i left your blood on my ankle
for a few minutes longer
than i had to after you’d gone
i let it dry to brown
before washing it
with ivory in the tub
your head in my lap
i felt fear by osmosis
and you felt the fleece
of my housecoat my
hand on your chest
i hadn’t even seen
that you were bleeding
until they took you away
Brenna Womer is a Visiting Professor of Creative Writing at Louisiana State University and the author of honeypot (Spuyten Duyvil, 2019) and Atypical Cells of Undetermined Significance (C&R Press, 2018). Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in North American Review, Sixth Finch, Bellingham Review, The Rumpus, and elsewhere. She is a Contributing Editor at Story Magazine and Faculty Advisor for New Delta Review.
rbd