EVERYTHING ITS PRICE.

A WOMAN REFLECTS ON HER LIFE AND CHILDHOOD AND LOVE AND LACK OF.

Everything
has its price
he said

and you supposed it did
even way back
to get
your mother's love
you had to do
so much to please

and that time
when one of her lovers
came and got
too near to me

she said o things
have their price Ruth
can't be watching him
all the darn time

and your father always
bringing home
stray dames
and saying
all people have the right
to be loved Ruth
that's the truth
he said

and then you'd
hear him and her
in the spare room
having it away
all day

but now
it is your turn
and to obtain his love
he wants
so much in return
and you think
once he's done
with you
he's having some other
maybe that skinny b***h
at the store
with an a*s
swaying like a horse

you gazed out
the window
now he'd gone

and that price he wanted
that one thing you wanted
in the balance

as you recall
your mother yelling
from her room
have to better
than that feller
I could darn finger
myself to a seventh heaven more
and the guy went
and slammed the door.

Author's Note

PHOTO BY LEE AVISON