A Satin Dress

 

A purple satin dress

with such feminine detail

Still hangs in her closet

Wasn't worn tonight

still sequined, brand new

Elegant.

 

Bone colored shoes

stand beneath the column

of purple

A vertical plum

so bold in color

Unflinching

Pretty yet powerful--

This should be worn by a woman

who knows what she wants

not someone who paces

in her third floor apartment

staring at the red sky breaking

over the less than impressive

mountain range

in her view

"A selling point,"

the Realtor had said -

A real perk to have a view

of the mountains standing

beneath the sky

viewable right from your

porch she said,

so cheerful, hopeful.

 

Driving to work this

morning, still wiping

the sleep from her eyes,

A coffee cup steams

away,

a bagel waits in a bag.

Everything so typical

just another day as a

secretary of clean repute

Not pretty but friendly

An open face and heart.

In her magazines she's told

she's the marrying type

yet the dress in her closet

is purple as a bruise

and was intended for tonight

a date, blurry under the stars

like a postcard

a black and white still.

 

The man so tall, dressed

in better than business

casual,

not exactly a suit.

In the photograph,

his capable hands

encircle her waist

bending her back for a kiss

in front of a fountain

a marble staircase

anywhere but here --

 

In her apartment on the

third floor

the night too dark even

for a glimpse of the hills.

Her shoes she moves

from beneath the dress,

in the closet

to the rug by the door

Hoping he'll come tomorrow

or else he's simply late --

and he'll call from

his cell, his car

slipping through

the night like a thief

to save her

from herself

and the dress

that's still

hanging in the closet.