the Macaroni Grill

she arrived

at the bar in her yellow corvette,

circa 1979.

which she parked

diagonally in the lot.

her hair

was of the same era,

stacked

high on her head,

a beehive

if there ever was one.

she wore

a purple dress,

and when

she opened her purse

for a tube of lipstick i spied a pink

handgun.

a small derringer

with her initials

engraved into the handle.

i asked her

about the gun,

and she told me that she

just got off

work at her mother's liquor

store where

she worked behind

the counter,

and plexiglass.

we're robbed almost every week,

she said.

then picked up the menu

and asked,

so what's good here?