Take all but, Me

The mirror speaks her financial advisor invest in the stocks and bonds of the soft skin on her arms softer than the sands slipping through dirty fingers playing in Jamaica's naked land Painting distortion black soot trims her lids like the lining from all of yesterday's fires on the chimney's peak when summer plays and still the soot remains without recognition to the effort that all her smoke gave And so she gave it all away to splay like an astrick across the stage relaying a forced pride exhibited through red bull and vodka she injested to hide herself appearing all but the mess she was inside Fun house mirrors she gazed away her time and swallowed the shallow compliments her income easily provides The only connections made were snaps that elapsed between the green of a smiling bill 'and the elastic of her Gstring The only thing that saved her the stripped ounce of dignity is that they could never see her only the Riley that they knew her to be The smile like the reflection of a vile injecting the dope into their stream for a quick fix they couldn't find in the comfort of their wives' arms And the same tune played every night in the less than candle dimmed light that shadowed the scars on the entertainer's faces creating the illusions of satisfaction when the most they had to look forward to was the long drag of a cigarette as they emptied their crown royal bags at the end of the night leaving to a pillow that their minds could barely rest their heads on dreaming of the inertia of those dirty paws leaving trails of scum microscopic but felt with each emblem that burned from their eyes hot coals on her thighs They won't take this from me my freedom of identity my evidence of purity policed by my heart and sold to no one but the deserved my love they never earned Just an appearance a "Hello and Goodbye" has now justified the means of my experience I laugh now knowing how they never dug up the anatomy of the true me and I survived their viscious hungry eyes Wanting even now to shed a tear for those angels dancing like broken ballerina's naked on the stage for those who wish to pay and feed the devil for a ticket to the carnival of an absence of souls this path I will no longer go....