Some women suffer themselves fools
trying to hold a man

who floats between them like driftwood;
whose happy tongue slicks

his catfish back; who constricts
his lover’s bones

as if a black rat snake
while holding out magnolia

blossom & eucalyptus branch offerings—except

for Annie who is strong as a water oak;

evergreen as pine.

Bounty Everlasting: Poetry from 25 Years of Southern Cultures

This poem is featured in Bounty Everlasting. Read all 25 for free.

Délana R. A. Dameron is the author of Weary Kingdom and How God Ends Us. She is an arts and culture strategist and divides her time between Columbia, South Carolina, and Brooklyn, New York.