Alone by Kim Patrice Nunez

Theatre, by Mary Cassatt, 1879.

Alone
 
Tickets are not easy to get at the Royal Circle.
A lady does not wish to get a seat by currying favor;
the flavor will eventually turn rancid and ruin her day.
The scent of expensive perfume pervades the warm air.
A packed house of coiffed women in evening frown
and men who wear success like a badge; she is here alone
 
in full regalia: pinned-up auburn hair, porcelain skin
in a buttoned-up dress.  White opera gloves, her nod to
convention.  Several eyebrows raise when she comes
unescorted. There is not much legroom and it cramps her style,
yet, she bears the discomfort one hundred feet above the ground.
She doesn’t get to see clearly the emotions on the actor’s face.
 
The rest of humanity looks like buzzing bees and butterflies
hiding gossiping lips on pale faces behind colorful fluttering fans.
She assumes the look; men have no monopoly on the stoic face.
An evening out unescorted teaches her the world will always
judge not just the melodrama she is watching onstage.
There is more to life than The Salon; a woman has a choice.  

Kim Patrice Nunez
 
Kim Patrice Nunez is an accountant and currently lives in Quezon City, Philippines.  Writing is her passion.  Her earliest works were published in the University of Nueva Caceres newsletter.  In the last year she has been published at PoetrySoup, an international poetry site. Her verses have won several poetry writing contests.