coquette

A Poem by auds

delicate white lace cloaking the uncapped lipstick,
smudged bits of cherry red mingled with cigarette ash;
a television in flickering black and white,
high-pitched laughs of ladies with bouffants from 1912;

an immobile figure sprawled on the linen sheets,
her mind buzzing of sporadic strums;
the rim of a wine glass bitten loosely by the lips
liberating hiccuping laughter in sync with a faint pulse.

heart-shaped necklace strung in resplendent pearls
captured the mirror reflection in a hypnotic trance
for its beads were capsules holding the ghostlike slivers
a spirited, precocious girl left behind.