Ladies In Waiting. by Peter V. Dugan

Outside the bar

sixteen and seventeen

year-old princesses

dress in tank tops,

tie-dyed tee-shirts,

cut denim shorts,

and Indian skirts,

smoking cigarettes

and drinking

from wine sacks

and bottles of Jack.

They moon-dance under

the neon lights

and dream of bankers

and brokers

driving white  

Corvettes

to carry them away,

but tonight they settle

for black leather

bikers on Harleys.

They are the wild flowers

that fills empty spaces.

Peter V. Dugan is the current Nassau County Poet Laureate, NY (2017-19).  He has published six collections of poetry and co-edited Long Island Sounds 2015 and Writing Outside the Lines poetry anthologies. He has received Honorable Mention from the American Academy of Poetry, LI Bards Poet Mentor Award by the Bards Initiative and he has been twice nominated for the Pushcart Poetry Prize. Mr. Dugan also hosts a reading series, Celebrate Poetry at the Oceanside Library, Oceanside NY, an open mic for teens and college student, It’s poetry, baby! at Sip This Café in Valley Stream NY and a reading series, Paumanok Pirate Poets, at Starbuck’s Long Beach NY.