Las Vegas Airport 1997

sitting alone chipped

toes push out from cheap

shoes ugly to begin with

and gently rocking back and forth

she still knows how

to baby herself

at least

hair dyed to a fried and final black

thick eyes to match, puffy with the hour

style, a cruel mistress

has jammed her into this dress

tighter every day

her nails, red, click a tattoo

on the cold chrome seatback

eyes darting now as another 3AM layover

spills its glazed and pasty cargo

to stumble toward the slots

islands of impossibly

bright and glaring hope

in a sea of strangers

#poetry