SPARK

Lisa Kilhefner
Inspiration piece

The Way of a Woman
By Terah Van Dusen
Response

Once, early on in our
relationship I shared a
hotel room with my man
three of his buddies

There were two beds so
Steve and I got one, two
buddies shared one, and
one fellow slept on the floor

Steve didn’t hardly touch
me at all that night
He was like that, respectful
(not of me but of his friends)

In the morning, I tip-toed
out the door into a barely-there Portland
springtime and in my royal purple longcoat
I practically skipped down the
road for coffee and maybe some
roll-your-own cigarettes
I stopped to put a rose in my hair

I found a place for coffee and, with the help
of a cardboard holder, brought cups back
for Steve and each of his friends
Also, I placed a blossom into the
tic-tac sized hole where you
drank from

I offered it to them, feeling a little crazy
and one of Steve’s friends told me:
Oh, you’re that kind of girl,
a compliment no doubt that
made me blush but I couldn’t
make a peep out of shyness
and in my head the words
were screaming:
I’m not a girl, I’m a woman!

but I didn’t say anything
then cause I didn’t want to
share em off

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