They’ve been whispering at the office
assuming
hypothecating
piercing him with suspicious stares
That Lipstick mark
is an eyesore
on the shirt collar
of such model of a man
He smiles
like a champion,
he shoulders no guilt
He wears the mark proudly
ignoring prying eyes
unwavering
in
his bliss
There are like marks,
careless marks,
in the family car
lipstick marks on the palm of his hand
lipstick on the dinner napkin
and lipstick marks—
Red
lush and lusty,
licious —
on the rim of the seductive port wine glass
This Bliss
he cannot but notice
how electrified
he still feels
when he sees it crayoned
on delicate lips of his wife of thirty years.
© selma
Image by Beverly Lussier from Pixabay
Short Bio:
Selma Martin is a retired English teacher with 20 years of teaching children ESL. She believes in people’s
goodness and in finding balance in simple living. She lives in Japan with her husband of thirty-four years.
In 2018, Selma participated in a networking course whose final lesson was to publish a story on Amazon.
After many failed attempts, she completed the course and self-published her short story, Wanted:
Husband/Handyman, in 2019. Later, collaborating with peers from that course, she published Wanted:
Husband/Handyman in an anthology, Once Upon A Story: A Short Fiction Anthology.
Selma has published stories on Medium for many years, in MasticadoresUSA, The Poetorium At Starlight, Short
Fiction Break, Lit eZine, and Spillwords.
In July 2023, Selma published a debut poetry collection on Amazon through Experiments In Fiction. In April
2024she was published in an anthology, Poetry Treasures through Word Craft Publishers, and in June 2024 in
a haiku anthology, Pearls of Haiku through Literary Revelations Press. You can find Selma on her website,
selmamartin.com, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook as selmawrites.
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