Poetry of Issue #7        Page 16

RED LIPS LEAD

Her red lips lead the high school girl
at Taco Time to take my order.
I try not to stare but glance
often enough that she should notice.
But isn’t that what she wants?
Attention? Red lips like the wax
red lips I clamped between my teeth
at Halloween and finally ended up eating.
Red lips like a match head eager
to strike against a coarse surface
and burst into flame exciting
and dangerous simultaneously.
Red lips like a clown smile smeared
in exaggeration to instill laugher/terror.
Not once did the high school girl
smile. Perhaps her teeth imitate
another Halloween wax of crooked
teeth marked by black, toothless holes
so her red lips press shut with hardly
a breath breaking free, and I almost
laugh thinking about her lips
turning blue for lack of oxygen.

  Diane Webster