The Important Thing

by Terri Watrous Berry

“The important thing is where

             she lets you put it.”

Image credit: Vitaliy Shevchenko on Unsplash

Guffaw, guffaws all around, and

her cheeks ignite, burning the same

color as in passion’s flush — full house,

four of a kind at her husband’s weekly

game — all straights, kings high.

Now the air is thick with the smell of

smoke beer and betrayal — Laugh,

little lady, laugh! — and so she does,

disgusting herself, feeling herself betray

every woman she has ever known.

All the while silently wondering,

through bared teeth and trembling

tears, if a man sees a woman

as demeaned — demeaned by

a sexual act with him — is she?

***

Terri Watrous Berry

Terri Watrous Berry’s work has appeared over four decades in anthologies, journals, magazines, and newspapers, poetry this year included by, among others, Last Stanza Poetry Journal, Gnashing Teeth, Peninsula Arts Magazine, and Pure Slush for the final volume in their Life Span series, Death. She is a Michigan septuagenarian. Onward and upward.