Barfly By Sharon Waller Knutson

She smiles in a pretty face,

lifted and botoxed,

until all the wrinkles

are as smooth as the sheets

where she entertains

the men she meets in the saloon

as she sips sugared daiquiris

and salted margaritas

and buzzes through the crowd,

swaying on mechanical hips

and knees on the dance floor,

a head resting on breast implants

and lands at midnight in the lap,

of a man, young, old, married

or not, she doesn’t care

as long as he leaves before 

the harsh daylight reveals her turkey

neck and senior citizen skin.

Sharon Waller Knutson is a retired journalist who lives in Arizona. She has published several poetry books including My Grandmother Smokes Chesterfields (Flutter Press 2014) and What the Clairvoyant Doesn’t Say and Trials & Tribulations of Sports Bob (Kelsay Books 2021) and Survivors, Saints and Sinners forthcoming by Cyberwit. Her work has also appeared in Black Coffee Review, Terror House Review, Trouvaille Review, ONE ART, Mad Swirl, The Drabble, Gleam, Spillwords, Muddy River Review, Verse-Virtual, Your Daily Poem, Red Eft Review, The Five-Two and The Song Is…