Cauldron Anthology Issue 9: They Who Were Spurned cauldron9finalproof | Page 26

The Stakes
K ristin G a rt h
The stakes for women aren’t history when
you’re 19 —Bangladesh, Mississippi.
They’re testosterone, kerosene, boyfriends
betrayed or headmasters obscene. Maybe
female fingers bringing you to a roof,
demanding silence. Watch, aloof, while one
will hold you by your head. The price of truth,
four days burned, mummified then dead. Undone
by matches, misogyny, a 19-
year-old, too, in Mississippi. Burnt lips
attempting some man’s name, what she might mean
contorted, pain & flame — coincidence?
These stakes still fires, men we may not survive —
in 2019, they’re burning us alive.
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Cauldron Anthology