Bar Fly by Joan McNerney

At Jewel Box Tavern
lights are always dim
so you can’t look closely.
 
Wearing stiletto heels, she
traipses along followed by
billows of cheap perfume.
 
Dressed in a second skin of
electric blue velveteen
covered with silver glitz.
 
She looks for a mark, some
clown who carries thick wads
of cash and a stash of coke.
 
Tapping the shoulder of
the willing joker with her long
lacquered fingernails.
 
First she must meet him
in the back alley to pay up
with her pound of flesh.
 
Showing its age, her face
is coated by pastes, crèmes,
thick rouge, blazing red lipstick.
 
Her brown eyes encrusted with
liners, mascara and shadow
revealed a certain sadness,
 
Secreted in the dark and dank 
women’s room, she snorts
that magical white powder.
 
Nothing matters now.
There is no despair
only this embrace of bliss.

Joan McNerney’s poetry is found in many literary magazines such as Seven Circle Press, Dinner with the Muse, Poet Warriors, Blueline, and Halcyon Days.  Four Bright Hills Press Anthologies, several Poppy Road Journals, and numerous Poets' Espresso Reviews have accepted her work.  She has four Best of the Net nominations.  Her latest title is The Muse in Miniature available on Amazon.com and Cyberwit.net