The Red Door

The Red Door



Two women stand at the entrance of a red door, quibble about the price of lust and love, like affected women in a comedy of manners restoration play. The older, intense and distressed, points toward her boudoir with a bony forefinger. The younger woman, possibly her daughter, looks the other way, uninterested in the older woman's sexual secrets. Dark memories circle the old one's head while bubbles, like light champagne rising to the top of a glass, stream continuously from the younger woman's skull. A red earring in the shape of a tulip dangles freely from the younger one's left ear, the fruit of her youth. The older woman's lips, top row of teeth barely showing, form a feeble snarl. She doesn't notice that her left breast has slipped and fallen from her gown. In the early morning she wears no jewelry, her drooping purple sleeves heavy with the weight of time. In contrast, the younger woman's white and lavender strapless gown of brightly flowered brocade, enticing on her slender body, clings to her taut torso. The three strands of pearls around her neck accentuate her breasts, which are lovely and plump. With just a generation and a half separating each other from the declining years, the trophy wife wantonly enters on cue as her elder clone exits.

"The Red Door" artwork by Marcus Stanley Bausch, Jr.


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