‘A Bar at the Folies-Bergère’

by Édouard Manet, 1882

She has no hat upon her head, no smile
upon her face as she leans slightly forward,
hands pressed against the slab set up in style
for orders either proper or untoward.

A length of ribbon wrapped around her throat
suspends the gaudy bauble she holds dear,
its giver having made himself remote
soon after seeming terribly sincere.

A velvet jacket trimmed with strips of gauze
has been designed to flaunt décolletage,
but she has learned what youthful beauty draws,
and now she wears a fresh-enough corsage.

The mirror shows the man she might forget
if only she could quit the place they met.