the lipstick chorus line
I have to admit, I’m suspicious of this color.
Wary, even though I’ve come to use it a lot.
For one thing, if my daughter were going to the prom,
I would not select this fuchsia for her gown.
On the other hand, she might.
I mean, here we are, the kind of folks
who button up the house by ten,
having guaranteed
that the dog has been walked
that the cat has come in
that the African violets have been watered
that the basement lights are off.
And all the while we are doing our duty,
tucking in the little ones and saying our prayers,
3607 is out at the roadhouse,
dancing the Monkey with a man named Earl!
What do you do with a color like this?
Lock her up?
Take away her ankle bracelet?
Make her enroll in data-entry?
No, you old stuffed shirt, just let her be,
soaring on her wings of neon
to the lipstick chorus line.
from The Very Stuff, by Stephen Beal