~ The Veranda ~

I picture four women on a veranda

four Southern women in straw colored hats

and gauzy dresses with lace covered fans

They were having a conversation,

and it was hot

their hankies were tucked in cleavages

where eternal trickles of perspiration ran

from the female breast bone to

exotic vacation spots

that Southern men often dream about

These Southern ladies were a mixture

of cotton candy and pink champagne

part calico choir girl

and part satin dance hall doll

They were sweet smelling, coy, cunning

voluminous, veracious, delicious

these earth sisters, these rebel mothers

they’re vexing, sexy and pernicious

Women who belonged to another time

where writing a letter was by

an exquisite hand

before flirting became extinct

and ladies still blushed behind their fans

Like a whim of Scarlet’s

they turned suddenly

as their conversation waned

shutting the door with the bolt of a latch

Leaving behind the longing to join them, but instead only an

abandoned handkerchief

to be picked up

to savor the perfumed shadows

of these women, these Southern women

©2006

Carole Mathys