Westmoreland County, Virginia

Eight years old and good as a bat,
clicking that tongue on the roof of her mouth
for echolocation, bed, table, chair,
no problem for her in Nelly’s small cabin
whenever she moved to the fireplace sniffing
while scanning low flames with skin wide-eyed
to lift a hot pot off, wholly unknowing
she had no value, zeroes by her name
in the ’82 inventory.