She once was
a beautiful woman.

You can see that still,
though now just barely.

Between the alcohol
the drugs
the bad men
and living under bridges,

she just looks
all used up.

There's still the part in her
most every woman has, though

where you act adoring
and big eyed
and needy
towards a man
and he melts,

but now its just creepy
and pathetic
as she deploys it
towards pretty much anything that moves,
as they shuffle her
from one room to the next.

Back a few years ago,
when I was still drinking,
she came wobbling in
and sat down on the bar stool next to me.

After a moment or two,
in a whiskey voice from hell,
she asked me
what's a lady have to do
to get a drink around here?

I told her nothing
and bought her the drink

which they served begrudgingly
and she downed
in one big greedy gulp,

lit a cigarette,
took a puff,
looked around,
then back at me,
and with all seriousness,

demanded to know
where that drink was,
I said I'd buy.

It wasn't long,
before she started working her way
down the bar,

but when she offered a guy
a blow job
for a shot,
they threw her out,

when she left, though,
it wasn't alone,
like when she came in.

Even the most dogged strategies
quit working after awhile,
leaving just you
showing through
the tattered remnants
of whatever it was
that got you
from there
to here.

So now,
she just shuffles along
in handcuffs,
her eyes darting
from one man to the next,

looking for the shot,
or the sex,
or maybe just
an instance
of compassion.