Image: Ann Mansolino

Jane sees Louise

Louise sees Jane

They rush towards each other

Jane very business like

Power suited to the hilt

Louise in jeans, smart and efficient.

‘They know,’ says Louise

‘They know everything.’

‘How could they?’ asks Jane

‘The kids snitched on you

Said they heard the rumours

The tell-tale lies you were spreading.’

‘It’s impossible.’ says Jane. ‘What will mummy and daddy say?’

‘It’s the least of your issues,’ says Louise

‘The social media is having a field day

You are persona non-gratia.’

‘How did it get out?’ Jane wonders.

‘The boss’s son spilt the beans,’ says Louise

‘Told one then another.

You should never have seduced him

Left your knickers on his bedstead.

He filmed it all

It was just a matter of time.’

Jane is mortified

The pretense over.

She’ll go on pretending

Being the professional, the executive

The unemployable

An outcast, unwanted, a pariah.

She’ll continue to dress the part

Bury her head in the sand

Deny everything in her reality.

In the shop window she sees a new business outfit,

Holding her already overdrawn credit card

She enters, flashes her irresistible professional smile

Impressive as always.

Inside the pain increases

She dies a little more

As she sinks further

Into the morass of her making.

Written for: https://mindlovemiserysmenagerie.wordpress.com/2016/06/28/photo-challenge-119/