Etiquette for Choking in an Applebee’s by Kristen Rapp

Etiquette for Choking in an Applebee’s

I heard somewhere that most women who die
from choking in restaurants are found
on the bathroom floor
presumably because they don’t want
to make a scene as they labor
for air and I’ve wondered
what they think about
in the moments before their bodies fold
on the tile, if they know
they were taught to choose death
inside a graffitied stall
over sharing their most basic need
to breathe
and then I look around and start to see
choking women everywhere.

*

Kristen Rapp is a poet and sociologist from Roanoke, Virginia. She is an associate professor of Sociology and Public Health at Roanoke College, where she studies and teaches on the topic of social inequalities in health. Her poetry explores themes of motherhood, queer identity, feminism, and politics. Kristen’s poems have appeared in the North Meridian Review and in a forthcoming anthology titled If You Ever: Poems Inspired by Kim Addonizio.