Hickory smoked sausage and orange peels,
all rotting on the dirty floor.
She sat in the rocking chair and saw the mess.

Pick up the floor,
she told the little girl.
And her seed died just then.

Big swollen belly
stretched as far as it could
till the Good Lord strangled that baby inside her.

The little girl
had nothing to gather all the waste
and the light of the moon was gone.
But she used the folds of her dress to hold
the rotting food.

You sad you didn’t meet him? the little girl squeaked from the floor.
I’m sad I didn’t meet Him. said the lady in the rocking chair.
There was a stale silence.
Come clean up this blood.