It's Still Life

Burlesque Girls

I still think about that cafeteria,
those downtown girls with bright red lips
and hair sleek and slicked into ponytails.
They slid like valley fog, slow and easy
into the gaps of long leather booths.
I watched, quiet as a speck of dust
as they sipped Pepsi and ate and laughed,
and to me, they were as bright as
a full moon’s halo. Burlesque girls.
And the world rushed on as I ate my dinner —
the best baked beans and wieners in town.

when night spills fluid
blue notes and negligees
we are semaphores

Miz Quickly’s Day 11: An Image and dVerse Haibun #28