"Portrait of a Lady in the Middle of Peachtree Street" by Nicholas Goodly

blessed are the sick and black
clawing at the morning

you damage what you can
lay waste to what’s in front of you

you raise your hands against me
stopped in your path

take a rod into your own hands
bang a wand upon my car

strike my hood
deliver whippings to a stranger’s body

tender-headed maw
you are mad

the weary face of it
swinging wildly

anger making more of itself
you are a lunatic carrying pain

you are what keeps us here
life is a race

trauma is a baton
you place in my hands

woman is this who you are
I wait you out

silent
air-conditioned

buff out your damages
like you never happened

I am not helpless
you are not the problem

we do this to each other
you know exactly who I am

Nicholas Goodly is a writer and artist living in Atlanta. They are the writing editor of Wussy Magazine, a Cave Canem fellow, author of the Georgia Writer's Association guest blog Free Verse, and team member of the performing arts platform Fly on a Wall. Nicholas is a finalist for the 2020 Jake Adam York Prize, the runner-up for the 2019 Cave Canem Poetry Prize and recipient of the 2017 Poetry Society of America Chapbook Fellowship, and received a teaching fellowship and MFA from Columbia University.