Monday, February 13, 2017
For my Friend Who Was Once a Prostitute
For my Friend Who Was Once a Prostitute
We listened in fascination,
wide eyed and gaping, to
your tales.
How you were the most able of all,
the girl with the strongest parts,
sometimes you could accommodate
several customers in
a single night.
The building where someone of means
once installed you in a deluxe
suite.
The time you stayed too long
in a hotel room
until your johns broke in through
the window
to make sure you were
o.k.
Then you discovered
"Modern Man in Search
of a Soul"
and it changed your life.
You went back to school,
got a student loan
and planned to pay it back
by setting up as an astrologer.
We four met
in a class about the
goddess.
You read Joseph Campbell,
Jung, William Thompson.
We had a lot in common,
got together
for serious discussion,
sometimes disagreed.
I moved to another state
and we all went our separate ways,
You went nearly blind
and got hard to deal with.
Wouldn't move out of your
third floor efficiency
even though you fell a lot
on the street
and kept breaking your bones.
You began to scream at those
who wanted to help you,
called them names until you
drove them away.
Once you were a dance teacher
at the Arthur Murray
Studios.
Now you live alone,
only a paid social worker
to look in.
You never did get your
astrology business
off the ground.
Sometimes
you can't even remember
your name.
Dorothy Walters
February 11, 2017
