Untitled

By Alayna Powell

A vagina

Stuffed full

Of linen

 

Smeared with                                 wax

 

                          The issue        

of

Hope

                           The black slave

Women

The hole

                                     

The issue

 

The catheter                

 

Introducing  

                           The catheter

To

A bag of smooth

muscle

 

Introducing

Elastic resin                      a moment

Of scalding

                                                         Urine torturous

                                                                       Leakage

Fill passively

The women                      Easily

 

As little water                         

             As

                                                         Possible

                           The standard     

The patient

as quiet

and immobile                                 as possible

 

The slave 

At his disposal

           

Glimpsed tools

Very Easily

Meat

 

The women

                                         Practice

                                                       Fruits

Of Surgery

 

Fistulas

 

That had been given to him.                


An up-close image of a Black woman with dark, curly hair and a small, gold septum piercing.

An up-close image of a Black woman with dark, curly hair and a small, gold septum piercing.

Alayna Powell is a senior studying poetry at the University of Pittsburgh. Her work is featured in Rogue Agent Journal.