With the Poke of A Stick

I awakened to my sexual vulnerability as a woman

Photo by Nick Wright on Unsplash

I awoke abruptly in the middle of the night. Something was poking my upper leg. Foggy from sleep, I tried to figure out what was happening. It was hot — one of those muggy nights in Southern Illinois in the late 1960s in a house without air conditioning. Who had money for that? In an old house without insulation? I’d left the window cracked…