Susan B. Anthony on Her Deathbed

What is the shape of love?
She lies on her bed in Rochester
Rochester hisses like heat through a grate
Her niece places a quilt over her
--A pieced gingham star--
Its center rests at her heart and its points
Radiate
She calls out the names of women
Suffragettes she has known
Their names, beloved names, are magic words when said
They set the air, animate it
--Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucy Stone,
Ida Wells--
Each appears before her, walks before her
Steps out as if on degrees of a compass
Soft compass, compass of colors, compass of women's
Hands
--Matilda Gage, Emily Gross, Isabel Howland,
Harriet May Mills--
Everything is the shape of the universe becoming
Spiral nebulae, arms entwining

Laura Stickney