lipstick translations

You on the balcony, my future wife
O who could have known, but no one
-Nick Cave, "Where Do We Go Now But Nowhere"

We were ourselves for supper tonight:
chewing a toothpick, I wore my favorite
straitjacket. She left her labial pencil
at home. I apologized for being slow.
Her lips opened and a short current of
words came out. She touched her stomach;
I saw her eyes shift, glanced away, saw
the valet, and dropped a set of keys from a set
of nerveless fingers. Her eyes were otherwise
occupied; I thought of the attorney, the doctor, the
possibilities. I had a sudden urge to cry:
our wine arrived and she sank into
her chair. Watching the bubbles break
from the sides and spill upwards towards
the surface: a doctor, a lawyer, a professor. A
short stream and then gone. Touching the stomach
once again: uneasy habit, nervous twitch just
recently. I thought of my parents, my
grandparents, and I held out a handkerchief,
for she had spilled
a single drop of wine.