After the Husbands Left the Table

Excuse me, but for just one brief moment I saw behind that bright lipstick smile, fangs, bred for biting jaws lowered, like a wolf, hungry to be baptized in hot, sticky blood. I thought for just a second there I saw curved talons neatly curled under  your filed nails, so  elegantly painted. So much paint we wear, don't we? Ruby lips and shadowed eyes, beige liquid to conceal every blemish. We can't be seen, we must "put on our face." Oh, all that war paint to get it just right. And on your finger, too, a diamond. How lovely. Diamonds are hard, you know. They use them to cut steel. Oh, now they've come back. What is that, honey? No, I'm fine. Excuse me. Just had a little too much wine.