We knew to keep walking
when the station wagon slowed

and the driver leaned out
the window.

We’d been warned: don’t talk
to strangers. We ran into the deli,

giddy from our brush with danger,
and shared a can of coke.

He was arrested for indecent exposure
one town away. Our proximity to evil

made us famous on the playground.
Independence, fireworks, explosions

everywhere that flammable July.
We felt desired and burned
with shame.

Feminist, activist, certified ennui therapist, and fairy tale revisionist. Deborah Hauser is the author of Ennui: From the Diagnostic and Statistical Field Guide of Feminine Disorders (Finishing Line Press). Her poems and book reviews have appeared or are forthcoming in Ms. Magazine, Women’s Review of Books, The Kenyon Review, Prairie Schooner, Bellevue Literary Review, and Calyx. Poet Laureate of Suffolk County and founder of Poetry In Action, she leads a double life on Long Island where she works in the insurance industry.