Hopperian

Short white dress
Dyed blond hair – barely done
Tanned arms and shins,
Modestly crossed legs,
Washed-out facial colour,
An ever-fading smile,
And a gaze fixed on what keeps hiding
Beyond the horizon,
Sometimes blurred by the apparition
Of a certain husband or family,
Sometimes by the lack of either,
Sometimes suffocated by a passion
Not felt, given, or shared,
Sometimes balancing
On a swimming pool springboard,
Longing for the watery embrace
As a kind of answer.