The prosecutor directed us to decide 
if there was evidence of innuendoes. 

She recited laws from a book bigger than 
the Bible and explained she was our legal 

advisor. When they brought in a young man 
accused of selling three pills to an undiagnosed 

cop, the prosecutor said her script could be 
a play if there’s sufficient cause for applause. 

After our high-heeled tax dollars left the room, 
we unanimously gave the finger to written law. 

Sweet fruit-shaped jurors saw themselves as one 
pie surrounded by the crust of the criminal court. 

We voted to dismiss. The prosecutor said she’d 
present the case to another jury. Apparently she 

was given the opportunity for a second chance. 

Garth Pavell’s

poetry has appeared in Crab Creek Review, Epiphany, Hobart, Hole In The Head Review, Main Street Rag, and many other unique journals. Garth was a finalist for Bellingham Review’s 49th Parallel Award for Poetry, and Mudfish Magazine’s Poetry Prize. He earned a BA in Creative Writing and Literature from the New School, and has worked as a guitar instructor, ESL teacher, horticulturist, grant writer, and road/construction laborer.

More on the Web: By, About, and Beyond

⚡ Five Poems by Garth Pavell in Hobart (4 December 2023)

⚡ It’s Always Midnight, prose poem by Pavell in Stone Poetry Quarterly (Issue 2, November 2021)

⚡ When My Wife Speaks Chinese on the Phone, prose poem by Pavell in Drunk Monkeys (1 May 2017)