Roxy Calls

Roxy calls all the men "honey"
cuz she can't remember names
Halloween bag full of sweets
Every one tastes just the same

Checks her horoscope each day
Acrylic nails tap on her phone
Virgo, the virgin makes her laugh and say
"I was never one of those."

Roxy wears her fuck-me heels
And a mini dress so tight
like a lime green ace bandage wraps her body
She knows that she's looking right

Mama hasn't called in years
(but who's counting?)
Family says that it's a shame
But she's done with all the prayers and all the tears
Roxy says "It's who I am."

Roxy calls all the men honey
cuz she can't remember names
Medicine chest full of poisons
They all make her feel the same.

submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, It's A Shame About Ray

Our Town

source

Meagan could still feel her Daddy's hands

touching her, she couldn't understand

Smelled the stale beer on his lips

Any place is better than this

Lives behind the Safeway with her friend

Sally used to work hard as a cook

til she threw her back out and she took

pills her doctor gave to her

Kept on needing more and more

Lost her job, her house, and still she's hooked

Lindsay locked herself inside the john

Her daughter cried and pounded for her mom

When her friends knocked down the door

Lindsay lay blue on the floor

Needle still was stuck in her left arm

Nicky always looking for a mark

Hooked up with his friend outside the park

Later on he stole his car

Didn't make it very far

Cuffs around his wrists 'fore it got dark

Camille called her mom this Sunday past

Said she needed just a little cash

Promised her she'd pay it back

Found her man and bought some smack

Father said that girl was always trash

Under every town's pretty facade

The underbelly's waiting to be prod

Take a peek, the edge is frayed

Out where the outliers strayed

Dying 'neath the gaze of a flawed god.

submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Music: Gratitude Edition, A Walk on the Wild Side

The Unexpected Stripper

source

Raven had been working as a stripper at the Pussycat Palace
going on 3 years
She was a beautiful girl
skin dark,
eyes like blue ice,
hair shiny
and inky black as a well-oiled glock

Raven didn't love her job;
she didn't hate it either
It beat bagging groceries or
hostessing at the I-Hop

Raven was working the late shift
The moon was round and full,
a fat man's stomach after an all-you-can-eat buffet
It was closing time
Last dance
before the patrons wandered off,
lost to the night

Raven took the stage,
swayed to the techno music
and began to doubt
the trajectory her life was taking

She had stripped down
to stilettos, pasties, g-string,
and a black, feather boa
The dollars were accumulating by her feet,
wet with sweat
from desperate men's hands

From somewhere in the crowd, Raven heard,
"Take it off, baby! Take it all off!"
Raven was an accommodating and literal minded girl
so off came the pasties, and g-string,
then the shoes and the boa
The men shouted louder

Raven looked at the crowd
Sparks shot from her obsidian eyes
She grinned
Then she began to peel off her skin
Slowly
First, one arm
then the other
Gently yanking the skin from her fingers
as if it were a cashmere glove
Then her torso, her legs,
and lastly, her face

The men were stunned silent
No one moved
Next, Raven took off muscle,
tossing the scarlet chunks of flesh into the crowd
like they were signed T-shirts and she a rock star
She stuck out her tongue
at the guy who had grabbed her boob earlier that evening
She plucked out her eyes
and dropped them like ice cubes
into the drink of the guy who had called her a slut

She was bone beautiful
No one asked for a lap dance
Raven was relieved,
as it was near impossible to twerk
having no ass
The music ended and Raven
picked up the dollars,
stashed them in her eye holes,
and sashayed away

No one would ever forget
that night at the Pussycat Palace
and no one would ever speak of it.


submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Fireblossom Friday, Build a Title
and The Sunday Whirl, Wordle 124

Jade and the Silent Boy

source

Jade had gorgeous eyes

You might think that her eyes were green--

You would be wrong

Jade’s eyes were brown

Dark as French roast coffee

and just as intense

That girl could hypnotize

with just one glance of those eyes

She once made the local librarian burst into song

while in line at the grocery

and the sanctimonious pastor fall ass over teakettle in love

with a tree squirrel

Just for kicks

Don’t fool yourself;

If she had looked your way

You would have fallen too.

Jade knew exactly what she wanted

Two things:

to escape her backasswards small town suffocation

and she wanted the silent boy with the motorcycle

The silent boy got his name some years ago

After a day of speaking ugly about neighbors and kin

His mama told him, “If you don’t have anything nice to say,

don’t say anything at all.”

The boy never said another word.

The silent boy was an immovable object

Jade was an irresistible force

It’s been said

that when an irresistible force meets an unmovable object

Some folks find magic

Some find madness

and some find God

Jade and the silent boy found each other

They locked eyes just briefly

Quicker than a ladybug’s sneeze

but it was enough

The silent boy said

“You have gorgeous eyes.”

Jade smiled, blushed, and looked away

Down at his leather boots

Then Jade and the silent boy

Climbed onto his motorcycle

and raced up the highway out of town.

They never looked back.

submitted for Poets United, Verse First, Women

Urban Angel

Inspired by Rosie Hardy's photography again!

image by Rosie Hardy

NJ Transit

Early morning
New Jersey Transit
137 into
the City
Suburban grandmas
shellacked nails, hair
lunch, shop, show
Young girl
facade cracking
running mascara
smeared lipstick
black eye
concealer can't
conceal
crying, cursing into
bejeweled cellphone
Drunk nods
says, "That's right"
looks for cigarette stubs
asks for change
Cold water restroom
no towels
Waiting
for the bus to
take us
somewhere else.

Don't Forget Your Light

Don't Forget Your Light" by Sudlice at Deviant Art

Bare walls
Bare floors
Barely even here
Another place
Another name
Another empty year
Wasted time
Wasted tries
Wasted every night
Can't outrun
Can't stay here
Don't forget your light.

submitted for Midnight Snack, 1, at Poets United

Icarus Also Flew

photo courtesy of Chris Galford

Paint cans in hand

We rule the night.

Urban fireflies we burn

Bright. We buzz

We hum. We leave

Our mark against the sky.

Everyone forgets that Icarus also flew.

The day is not so kind.

Hot sun burns our skin.

Hot words spit in faces

Burn our spirits to ash

Black as the streets where

We escape.

See our words erased

Our images whitewashed.

Everyone forgets that Icarus also flew.

Sundown comes.

Night calls us like a pheromone.

Paint cans in hand

We stretch our wings, aching to fly.

Some day they'll see us.

Some day we'll reach the sun.

Everyone forgets that Icarus also flew.

submitted for One Shoot Sunday at One Stop Poetry