From: Urban Chemistry

“The Basis of a Late Night Trade”

You can see it in her brown, glossy eyes:
just how much she wants it, needs it –
how eager she is to concede
to nearly any of the salivating predators
perched beside the bar –
all watching,
waiting,
brooding
over how to go about the attack,
wondering which words would work best.

It takes no talent; they all can see it:
How easily she would requite
some false, substitute love
in exchange for the contaminated semen
that must be quickly cast aside and left

abandoned.

How readily she would give –

give

and

take

all

for just one more bottle of Bud – anything –
just a few more sips
of soothing, conquering comfort –
just one more chance
for her dry tongue to taste
and her drunken sanity to feel
aching satisfaction in return.

Web: http://web.lsue.edu/la-review/index.html
Credit: First appeared in The Louisiana Review 3.2: 61.