Past Curfew

adapted from A Second Shot to Have the Best Night of Their Lives

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/12/us/12prom.html

Mom goes to prom

In an aquamarine dress with golden heels,

Spray-on tan and French-manicure,

Her hair in stiffly sprayed waves.

Dad pins a gardenia on her bodice

Awkwardness of an 18 year old, blessedly absent.

Silver and black balloons float above the bar of

A ballroom in Green Bay, Wisconsin

Pink punch is spiked

No chaperones in sight

Hits from the eighties provide the soundtrack

Some slow dance

Touching curves,

Free from the gaze of toddlers

And the clearing dishes after dinner.

A gaggle of women

Emboldened enough to go stag,

Now wait to be asked to dance,

Looking forlorn

Trying desperately  not to remember the boy who didn’t ask

Twenty years before.

If you close your eyes

And suck in your stomach,

You may pretend mom and dad are still alive

Waiting up until your curfew,

That life is just beginning.

No limos wait in the parking lot

Just SUV’s with car seats,

Waiting to return to the carpool lane in the morning.