Kristin Garth
Target, Today
Blonde college guy in Target met my eye,
and I did not consider it’s because
of my lavender velvet sundress, my
DD’s, both cursed and blessed. I saw
the backpack bulged, affected gait. I held
my breath and stood in place, eyes racing to
the nearest door, just in case, I’m compelled
to run from guns, another man like you,
who’s livid with the world and through. These words
sound dramatic but just yesterday some young
man shot eleven people. It occurred
ten minutes from this place. Baggage we
take
to places we learn, laugh, shop, even pray;
like you, I carried in Target, today.
and I did not consider it’s because
of my lavender velvet sundress, my
DD’s, both cursed and blessed. I saw
the backpack bulged, affected gait. I held
my breath and stood in place, eyes racing to
the nearest door, just in case, I’m compelled
to run from guns, another man like you,
who’s livid with the world and through. These words
sound dramatic but just yesterday some young
man shot eleven people. It occurred
ten minutes from this place. Baggage we
take
to places we learn, laugh, shop, even pray;
like you, I carried in Target, today.
Occupational Hazard
When you’re a stripper in a Bible Belt
small southern town and your house is burned down
one more Friday night spent half naked, knelt
before men like them — these firemen who found
a dead kitten inside a closet where
they find accelerant, they will not be
reverent when they say, you still there,
to one another — could be so many
men; maybe angry what she took from them.
Occupational hazard in a life like that.
Though two suspects are your landlord, ex-boyfriend
not customers, they blame the death of this cat,
casually, upon the work you do
escaping what your parents did to you.
small southern town and your house is burned down
one more Friday night spent half naked, knelt
before men like them — these firemen who found
a dead kitten inside a closet where
they find accelerant, they will not be
reverent when they say, you still there,
to one another — could be so many
men; maybe angry what she took from them.
Occupational hazard in a life like that.
Though two suspects are your landlord, ex-boyfriend
not customers, they blame the death of this cat,
casually, upon the work you do
escaping what your parents did to you.
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