Jill Hennessy Follow

where are you going?
could i meet you? got a late shift tonight
i’d feel better if i could go with you -
to the rail…
up the stairs…
to the perfumed back room where the girls all comb their hair -
to the bar with black light she downs shots
to feel right about the business suits,
the laughing men,
the hungry eyes,
she turns again to make sure that i’m still waiting there by the door

then she dances some more, all alone on the floor

erin doesn’t like to be alone so i play her bodyguard ‘til she gets home - her platinum hair in a broken band, her cigarette lit, we walk hand in hand and catch the night train and try to laugh all the truth away - she says how do you do it? i don’t think i’m smart - i got no one behind me, i can’t feel my heart but i try to use whatever god gave me, try to save up my money and someday maybe i won’t hear my father’s footsteps behind my door – i won’t hear them no more

so she dances some more, high heels scraping the floor

she never talked about you in those 3 am calls when she’d throw her new plates at her sea foam green walls trying to buy some new lies from that smug pusher-whore with his preppy blond hair who i kicked out the door, her pretty blue eyes ringed in black and red as she crumples again at the foot of her bed but I know…what you did

and she dances some more, all alone on the floor, her tired ballet for the poor, and i just wait by the door