May 2017
Mary McCarthy
mmccarthy161@gmail.com
I spent most of my working life as a Registered Nurse, but have always been a writer and artist. I recently moved from Pennsylvania to Florida, and am hoping to devote more and more time to poetry and art, living here near the water, which has always brought me peace and inspiration. Lately I have had a chapbook published by Praxis journal online—“Things I Was Told Not to Think About” available as a free download.​

Editor's Note:  In her submission letter to me Mary wrote:  "I was encouraged to write “Tooth and Nail” by two V-V members, Tricia Knoll and Alan Walowitz, in a conversation about another poem, and it is my attempt to write about an assault experienced long ago, that I never addressed in writing."

Tooth and Nail
for Tricia Knoll and Alan Walowitz
​​
There was no warning
that winter morning
bright and clean as a cut.
I walked the cobbled alley
at 10 a.m. in my old
neighborhood
expecting nothing but the bus
I hoped to catch
in time for my next class.

Then came the sudden
rush of someone
running from behind
and hands brought down
hard and quick
over my mouth and eyes.

In that first breath
I thought it was a friend
surprising me
with the “guess who” game
But those hands
pulled me hard
down and back
filling me
with wild refusal
as I dragged myself up
hand over hand
on a cyclone fence
then reached up behind me
fingers clawed, stabbing
at his eyes— 

and when his hands slipped
I bit them hard
surprising us
out of the clutch.

I stood and turned,
screaming,
and we stared at each other
for one long beat
before running
in opposite directions.

Later the detective said
nothing could be done,
since I was not raped or robbed
I had lost nothing
anyone could count,
but he hoped I had
“washed out my mouth
real good.”

Stunning me into silence,
alone again with nothing
but teeth and nails.
©2017 Mary McCarthy
Editor's Note:  If this poem(s) moves you please consider writing to the author (email address above) to tell him or her. You might say what it is about the poem that moves you. Writing to the author is the beginning of community at Verse Virtual. It is very important. -FF