Woman, Carbs Redacted

Five rich old men cry over a sex crime
behind me while I wait, with earbuds out,
to hear my coffee called — so long this time
I hear details — a ruined career, shouts
stand out inside a crowded bagel shop.
I hop up, rather wait beside the bar
than hear them, teary-eyed, pontificate
about the consequences as if they are
just random acts of fate that happened to
a puppet or a saint. I don’t know what
he exactly did, but know there’s a woman who
has been redacted from this tale. I shut
them out, earbuds. Some woman smells my bread.
I can’t eat it — resounds inside my head.

Kristin Garth is a Pushcart, Best of the Net & Rhysling nominated sonnet stalker. Her poetry has stalked magazines like Glass, Yes, Five:2:One, Former Cactus, Occulum & many more. She has six chapbooks including Shakespeare for Sociopaths (Hedgehog Poetry Press), Pink Plastic House (Maverick Duck Press), Puritan U (Rhythm & Bones Press March 2019) and The Legend of the Were Mer (Thirty West Publishing House March 2019). Her full length, Candy Cigarette Womanchild Noir is forthcoming April 2019 (The Hedgehog Poetry Press), and she has a fantasy collaborative full length A Victorian Dollhousing Ceremony forthcoming in June (Rhythm & Bones Lit) and Flutter (TwistiT Press) in January 2020. Follow her on Twitter: (@lolaandjolie), and her website kristingarth.com.