I wake to a knife on the back of my neck, a man's voice low in my ear. What I am told to do, I do. Still the moon lights my room. The freight of his chest fixes me to the rough, wood floor. His breath brags down my throat into my lungs, and I pray for my soul. I make of my body a bunker: when he enters, he does not touch me. I am clean as rain.
Copyright © 2000 by Sondra Upham. Reprinted from Freight with the permission of the poet and of Slapering Hol Press--A project of The Hudson Valley Writers' Center. All rights reserved.