B29
Public Record
Excerpt from novel: with Abandon

i was sitting on a long bench in a coffee shop

with four or five other people,
all a socially respectful distance from one another.
the man to my right was grey-haired and well-dressed,
reading a newspaper and
debating with the articles quietly to himself.

“so, what are you saying?”
he said in a low mumble that probably only i could hear,
then he leaned toward me without turning his head
and farted with such great intensity that the whole place
quieted a little.
the bench rumbled like a wooden roller coaster
and to himself he said,
“bless me,”
and went on reading as if nothing had happened.

i couldn’t contain myself
the way the four polite others on the bench could;
i chortled hot coffee out my nose.
it was transplendent.

Frida Bilson