A Night Out By B. Lynne Zika

What do you mean we can’t go to your place?

He turned off the ignition

and left his hands on the wheel.

Hell, he didn’t have a place we could go, either.

It was the parking lot or nothing,

and I’d waited too many months for nothing.

Divorce can leave a woman on the prowl.

 

I’d dressed carefully, soaking first

in a hot bath with sesame oil,

legs and underarms shaved silky smooth,

long hair shining, and a dress

which whispered sexy but didn’t scream.

Eyelids lined and shadowed sultry.

Lips plump and moist.

It was the first time

I’d ever been in a bar alone.

 

He got down to business

right there in the front seat,

the lights of the parking lot

casting shadows in a grim film noir.

Twenty-eight years old, two kids,

and starting life over… like this?

He paused and peered down at me. Say,

how old are you, anyway?

and I needed someone so much,

needed someone too much,

to shove him off, smile, and say,

Hey, handsome, fuck off and die.

B. Lynne Zika is a poet, essayist, photographer, and fiction writer currently living in Los Angeles. Her books The Strange Case of Eddy Whitfield, The Longing, and Letters to Sappho: Putting Out the Fire are available on Amazon and through other booksellers. In addition to editing poetry and nonfiction, she worked as a closed-captioning editor for the deaf and hard-of-hearing. She has received awards in short fiction, poetry, and photography. Her father, Yewell C. Lybrand, Jr., was a writer himself. Before his death at 36, he bequeathed her this wisdom and mission for a lifetime: Make every word count.