Brothel Women

Approachable, self confident

   As adventurers in a circus fun house,

  Sheathed in black and the frank

  Promise of intimacy, these flowers

  Open their petals in the dim light.

  Planted on a high stool or low couch

  Each keeps a still full drink close at hand.

  Still as zen acolytes, they wait

  Patient as a garden in the dusk

  For what nourishment night might bring.

  Money feeds their vivid dreams.

  On a beach in Spain, in a tony store,

  They find pleasures enough to fill

  The quiet intervals between commerce.

  Money-flush men will step among them

  Moving slowly, searching carefully,

  They wander in this fragrant garden.

  Their need will halo the woman chosen.

  In rooms above they bare their needs

  Groping both for pleasure and what might

  Water and replenish their own inner gardens.