Women Broke Into Man's Home and Threw Glitter at Him, Police Say

(NY Times Jan. 12, 2022)

Can't a man be safe, judge, in his own abode, his castle?
Who among us might not stand outside at three
a.m., maybe to have a smoke, free from hassle?
So the gentleman stood, like Romeo in reverse, on his balcony,
perhaps to watch for meteor showers or to inhale
the humid Florida air. The woman below—a lover? No matter.
An Amazon, she vaulted over the rail
to his side, unlocked his door, let in an abettor,
another harpy disguised as a pixie, with pails
of their weapon. Clearly mens rea. They scattered
glitter everywhere, in his eyes, his hair,
his shoulders. Glitterbombed! Was this a woman scorned?
Did he make to one or both his vows and
Break them? Was this revenge for revenge porn?
Justice was done. The magistrate set bail
for each of the miscreant females: seventy-five thousand.
They both smile in their mug shots at the jail.

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Arlene Weiner's poems have appeared in journals including the Paterson Literary Review, Pleiades, Poet Lore, and U.S. 1 Worksheets, and in anthologies, and have been heard on The Writer's Almanac. Arlene was awarded a residence at the MacDowell Colony. Ragged Sky Press published two collections of her poems, Escape Velocity (2006) and City Bird (2016). Arlene maintains websites for Squirrel Hill Poetry Workshop and Pittsburgh Poetry Exchange. She also writes plays. Pittsburgh Playwrights Theater Co. produced her play Findings in 2017, and Carlow University Theater performed her monologue "Clothesline" in 2018.