Issue 12
Only
Arlene Ang

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minibar

Ladies Night Out

The thick swing of doors
and interior darkness
already warns
'for women only'.

Free coupon in hand,
I hesitate
before braving this womb
of bass-pumped music.

After twenty years
of children and marriage,
I remind myself
I am female, after all.

Leather skirts
on the bandstand assault
shouting audiences
with metal-peppered melodies

as waitresses in black
single me out
with barked commands
to order cocktails.

Perched on this stool
of isolation,
I hang on to the only
company at hand --

this umbrellaed cocktail
sweating coldness on my palm
in the middle of
desperately happy faces.

~Arlene Ang

Arlene Ang is the editor of the Italian Niederngasse. Her poetry has recently appeared in The Green Tricycle, The Paumanok Review, Sometimes City, Tryst and Eclectica. Email.

© 2003 by Arlene Ang. All Rights Reserved.

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© Copyright 2003 by Cayuse Press. All Rights Reserved.