POETRY

You Ask If Loving a Woman Is Easier

By Jeni O’Neal     VOLUME 58 No. 2

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As if I found, improbably, in the midst
of a rocking sea of stubble, right angles,
large shiny boots, and stock options
               some sacred feminine shore.

As if she was the land that sprouted my feet.

As if when holding her breath in mind with mine.
As if a pomegranate spun song.

As if when I sat beside her
in a staff meeting I didn’t watch
her pen move across the page
like it was the Fourth of July.

As if the nape of her neck did not conduct electricity.

As if she wasn’t a mouthful of jam,
a saucer of silt.

As if I didn’t laugh even when cruelty edged her voice.
               As if I could refrain.

As if I did not pee more furtively when she was in the stall beside me.

As if her shoulder blades were nesting doves, her earlobes question marks,
her spine composed of prayer beads.

As if I could fall asleep without counting each knot in the rosary.

As if my sex, pulsing and open, in her hands
               was any less fragile,

               and it was not.

•     •     •


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JENI O’NEAL has a BFA from New York University, a JD from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Law, and an MFA in creative writing from University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Jeni won the Robert Watson Literary Prize. She also won second place in the James Applewhite Poetry Prize. Jeni’s poetry was nominated for a Pushcart Prize by Cathexis Northwest. Jeni teaches and lives in North Carolina.


VOLUME 58 No. 2