Bachelor Girl

by Sarah Henry

Her church holds

a night of recreation

for singles who

are active members.

She seeks

a determined man.

A preacher

leads the group.

He flattens his hands

on a long wooden

table to be honest.

“Now,

I don’t want

any of you here

going out

with each other

without my consent,”

he says,

from an omniscient

point of view.

And then--

“Let’s order pizza.”

Members rush

into an annex

and play frantic

volleyball matches.

Loners pace

back and forth

on the sidelines.

Out in the parking

lot, dark, desperate

snow falls

over lost cars.

The girl’s bed

will be half empty

or half full.

Time will pass

slowly or quickly

until she goes again.

* * * * *

Sarah Henry studied with two U.S. poet laureates at the University of Virginia. Today she lives near Pittsburgh, where her poems have appeared in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the Pittsburgh Poetry Review. More of Sarah work has been included in Writing in a Woman's Voice, MUSED:The Bella Online Literary Review, and the International Woman's Day issue of The Camel Saloon. She is retired from a newspaper.