Making It Go Away
In the pew at St. Alban’s
the girl picks a bit of skin
from the edge of her nail
during the liturgy,
sting a distraction
from the staid service,
the reverend’s rote,
but uh-oh her thumb
is bleeding so she tears
a little triangle from
the corner of a hymnal
page and presses paper
to the rude sore.
The scrap tamps
sensation, disguises
her discreet misdeed—
this discovery
of secret satisfaction
hers well before
entrée to the tedium
of sex with some dull,
demanding boy.
- © Jeanne Julian 2021
Jeanne Julian of South Portland, Maine, is co-winner of Reed Magazine's Edwin Markham Prize (2019). Author of Like the O in Hope and two chapbooks, she has published poems in Comstock Review, Kakalak, Poetry Quarterly, Naugatuck River Review and other journals. She reviews books for The Main Street Rag. www.jeannejulian.com
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