http://wso.williams.edu/~pham/babble/

1

poem of the week
- the theme of this POTW site -

the color of her lipstick 

we saw a hooker
picked up across 
the street
from the bar 
we were in
drinking pitchers
and smoking
each others' skin

the streets were bright
and empty
like a van gogh paris scene
the sidewalks yellow, streets orange
with the lamps lit
glow

by the time my friends
were soused enough to care
the bar was shallow
pretty girls wading away
groups playing blob-tag
down the streets

a man well-dressed
strode up to her
(smoking, fret with waiting)
and after hesitant conversation
eyes sweeping the street
held her, kissed her
their silhouette:
an american gi 
returning from war
but a prostitute
and her john

a bus coughed by
and they were gone
into the headache night
this upper-class district
fremont, seattle
the microbrewery bar

what brought angelica there
to find love
$300 dollars too broke?
what's a pretty girl like you
doing in a life like this?

and where is she?
and why is she lost?
and what will she wear tomorrow?
and how does she choose
the color of her lipstick?