lady friends

thirty something
intuiting seventy
stoop talks
lemonade
cheap cheese
and bread dipped in
decaf coffee
(because afternoons and caffeine
make for drunken hags)...

lizabeta shifts her girdle
sitting
laughing
she stops
thinks
and starts again
something bigger
than her
makes a dent in her
stomach
breathe, breathe, breathe
like a bird
cleaned after an oil spill

nessa rubs
her wrist
a habit altered from childhood
at twenty
she rung her feet
until anxiety gave
way to rum,
diet coke
pizza fills
midget men
and biting
dogs

saruiz
makes fake sugar
out of salt
pouring duration
into dirty glasses
nessa is blind
lizabeta
lost smell
for sex
and
she who
mixes
gives way to
self in favor
of him, him, him
only to see
kitty cats
in winter muffs