Brenna Womer: i left your blood

Photo: Joanna C. Valente

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

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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.