Rich old ladies in America
like to fold and unfold a big smile
they learned from musicals with Ginger Rogers
when they were young and fresh.
Now their imitation smile,
challenged by repeated facelifts,
looks like aged cured cheese
in a discount emporium;
but they can’t help it.
Needless to say they even think
they are the big cheese.
That’s why these ladies
don’t make wonderful grandmothers.

And when rich old ladies in America
visit family for Thanksgiving Day,
they could irritate all turkeys in the nation
with their ostentatious display
of Tiffany adornments,
if the big birds were not already
stuffed and roasted.

As to sneak away another fifteen years
from savings, pension funds,
and Parcae,
rich old ladies in America
move Southeast Sunshine Florida
in their seventies.
You can spot them dozing off on a veranda
in Palm Beach,
completely unaware
of a sheepish smile
they wear;
possibly they have this reverie
of being Eves in Eden,
when a sweet cool breeze
sweeps off the mystic leaf,
and Adam’s eyes read sin.

You wouldn’t miss this smile:
it is as charming as Mona Lisa’s.

© Elena Malec