Ladies Waiting in a Bar

The theme is timeless, but the scene is not.

These four painted ladies in their tightly composed group

Live forever in the 1920s as if frozen in amber. They are

all we see except for some bottles on the bar edge.

The standing central figure is poised like a ballerina.

With raised arms crossed over her felt cap above crossed feet. 

She gazes off to the side.  Like petals, her skirt edges curl upward.

Magically, a drink with a straw in a tall gas hovers beside her.

Closest, and to her left, a seated heavy woman with short black hair

That hugs her scalp.  She is hunched and leaning forward.  Her arms

Clasped around her stomach.  Her gaze is down and inward

As if imagining herself in some other time and place.

Across from her, closer to the foreground, is a fat woman in a black dress

With even shorter brown hair and vivid red lips.  She holds a drink

On her crossed right knee, and a lit cigarette level with her large breasts.

Interested in business, she looks outward frankly, inquiringly.

The fourth woman, the one closest to us, stands looking out.

Leaning her left elbow on the bar, that hand cupping her cheek,

The right arm is akimbo.  Underneath blonde curls, her wide eyes

Stare out at us as if to ask us what we think we see.