red booth
review


issue 11n
After Spray-Painting My 
Husband With Cafe-Au-Lait

I apologized between coughs 
and sudden postnasal drip.
Then stopped myself from 
dabbing his face with 
a not-quite-clean table napkin.
Just hold a sec, I pleaded
before running for my digital.

In less than a minute, I had him
framed not-quite-happily 
drinking coffee, his eyes 
voodoo-prickng me 
behind a raised cup. 
It's for a magazine, I offered.

Looking at the snapshot 
then at him, I paused.
With a critic's finger 
I touched the sticky tan
on his chin and admitted 
he was right all along.


- Arlene Ang

  

Arlene lives in Venice, Italy as a freelance translator, volunteer 
web designer, part-time housewife and occasional writer. Her poetry has 
appeared in Zuzu's Petals Quarterly Online, Rattle and Oyster Boy Review.
Go back to the Red Booth Review.