Cambridge Ladies
Aging stylish women
crowd into concerts
husbands gone to a better world
or a more sympathetic ear.
Lonely, some of them,
others calm in a world where
they need please no one else,
where it is quiet
and for sex, there are ways
if you are alone
well-practiced fingers
with fragrant oil
or a friend with a mutual need.
Children grown now,
harder to pacify.
But there is always work,
the core around which
life can be twisted.
Lari Smith