A Powerful Girl

A powerful girl has moved into the attic. She sits on a trunk and
wears a ship in her white, wild hair. Fully naked, she sits on a
trunk in the attic with a ship-rigged frigate dipping in and out of
her hair. She knows how to touch a man. First, her hands glide
from temples to neck. While I watch, her white hands glide from
temples to neck to chest. While I watch, the man turns hot. Now he
convulses. Now he is still. The powerful girl lifts his body into an
open trunk and shuts the lid. She knows how to touch a man and
stop his heart. We are running out of trunks.

 
 
 

Kristen Miller is a poet and playwright living in Louisville, Kentucky. Her work has received recognition from the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival, The Humana Festival of New American Plays, Pushcart, The Robert Haiduke Prize, and the Sara-Jean McDowell Award. She is the director of programming and development at Sarabande Books.