David Penn
A woman observed in a pub
The woman with the auburn hair
does a bee dance from the loo.
She slow-zigzags across the floor,
uncertain of her step - as though
she’s realised she’s a tightrope walker
suddenly.
Foundation smeared like chalk,
black cherry lipstick, threads of hair.
Her cheesecloth shirt, worn jeans
and satin bomber jacket
hang as loosely as a circus tent.
And at her table,
there’s her boyfriend, holding court,
his gold-ringed fingers spread like
palace gates, his silvered glasses
too absorbed to point her way.
She sets down like a bird
and lights a cigarette, and stares at the wall
and talks towards it, nodding.
Like a puppet balanced by a weight
inside her skull, she moves her cigarette
between her mouth and the space
in front of her, then leaves it
like a short white needle, dripping wraiths.
And as she leans
towards the invisible friend,
she holds a hand to him across the table,
and the boyfriend turns mid-tale
and freezes, watching.
The invisible guide is listening now,
and when he listens, he really listens
and when he speaks
he must be saying something good,
because she nods, and smokes,
and takes it all in.
Page(s) 67-68
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