60 miles she drove for at least a kiss,
downed a shot and a cheap margarita
quickly for courage and for show, then
they hugged. She’ll know if his eyes
trace the flowered underside of her bra
through her skin-tight white waffle-cut
shirt because he’ll say something. If
he doesn’t, she’ll tell him. Leaving
an almost ex, botoxed, veneered
b-actor of a husband at home she’s
trying out her recharged level of desire
and desirability, thinks she can make
a man breathe heavy just by putting
on lip gloss hip-to-hip at the bar, one
hand painting the brushstrokes she hopes
will be chewed off shortly, the other
hand resting on his thigh. At his
crappy hotel she will shimmy out
of plastered-on jeans to show
this cowboy, six years her junior,
a thong so feather-light and sheer
it’s the Ghost of all Christmases past,
tattoos and a navel ring to match the pink
on her lips. He may have seen this before,
in dad’s old magazines, found high up
on the bathroom shelf, now packed away.
Or this may be new. Either way
he’s gonna buy her breakfast and forget
her name. Come Monday, it was just
one more alcohol dream.
Tobi Alfier is a multiple Pushcart nominee and multiple Best of the Net nominee. Both “Slices of Alice & Other Character Studies” and a reprint of “Sanity Among the Wildflowers” were published by Cholla Needles Press. She is co-editor of San Pedro River Review (www.bluehorsepress.com).
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