The Wardrobe’s Best Dressed: Her Kind by Cindy Veach

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You’ve Got to Deny, Deny, and Push
Back on These Women

               A woman’s adultery is a very serious attack on the honor and
               dignity of a man.

               —Judge Neto de Moura of the Porto Court of Appeals

content warning for violence

And still they pick up a stone. And still they throw a stone.
Because the woman. The woman.

Mr. Judge. The Honorable. Sets him free.
After all, his honor. Infinite

these one-sided stones
though John wrote what Jesus said—

how no one touched a stone.
And still they pick up a stone. And still they throw a stone.

Because asking for it. She was asking.
She was the cause.

Because of clothes
on her body clothesline

in a spring breeze. Golden sunshine.
Fresh. So fresh.

Because not a dedicated wife.
Not, not, not.

Jesus spoke. John wrote.
No one touched a stone.

And still they pick up a stone. And still they throw a stone.
Because the woman. The woman deserved it.

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