Pro

We didn’t guess, even though
the solitary Englishman at the bar
joked with her suggestively.

We only knew her airport job,
arranging sightseeing tours:
blue suit behind a desk.

Dinner times at our hotel,
in sleek black evening dress
she table-hopped, chatting.

She spoke English, French and Dutch
as well as Balinese and Indonesian;
good company in any language.

‘A woman as smart as that,’ said Bill,
‘Should be working for herself.
She’d be wonderful in business.’

The Englishman stared at us
over the top of a whiskey glass
and delivered his conversation stopper

(drawing out the word): ‘She is
in business for herself — she’s
the highest-priced hoor on the island.’


November PAD Chapbook Challenge 2010: 7
Prompt: a 'pro' poem (in the sense of being 'for' something, 
but I've allowed myself a slight reinterpretation).