What is Costs (Pay the Poets)
Pay me.
I know you want me.
Pay
me.
Pay me
for the service I provide.
It’s the gig economy.
It’s the service industry.
Oh, money, money,
its so dirty!
Is that why everybody wants it?
It pays
for all the pretty things—
it’s a pretty thing itself,
ain’t it, baby?
Shiny tangy salty-sweet—
five seconds in the dirt,
you can still put it in your mouth
(if you take it out of mine), cuz it’s
still clean
still pretty clean
still mostly clean
and you want it clean
and you want it dirty
and you want it
and you want me--
pay me.
Pay me for my pretty, dirty act.
Pay me when I get up off my back,
do this dance. Pay me
when I pull it out for you.
Pay me for the heart I break for you.
Pay me!
It’s the least that you can do!
I’m the Uber of your dreams
I can drive you to your knees--
pay me.
Tap the app and I’ll deliver
feed your head and fry your liver.
Pay me.
If you want it, well I got it,
you come sniffin’ for a treat,
but I too have mouths to feed,
holes to fill and hands that need
and it isn’t filthy greed it’s that I bleed.
And I am hungry. As you’re hungry.
It’s a simple quid pro quo.
It’s not personal, no--
it’s just business
business as usual, no
funny business not
givin’ you the business, it’s a
goin outta business sale—
half-price,
half-price,
fire sale,
fire damage,
smoke damage--
smoke
and mirrors
and damage—
you pay--
you pay to see the
damage--
and I got it
and I’ll show it
and I’ll shake it
but not for free—
none of this is free--
if I had to pay
and pay
and pay for my
damage,
so do you.
Expensive damage.
Pretty, shiny, dirty damage.
Put it in your mouth,
take it outta mine,
roll it on your tongue,
tastes like wine and cigarettes
and blood and everything I pull out,
and everything I stuff in,
and everything I paid for---
bought and paid for—I got overhead, baby—
fuckin’
pay me.
Jennifer Maloney is a poet, playwright and performer based in Rochester, NY. A former sex worker and a sober addict, read her work at Anti-Heroin Chic, SHIFT: A Publication of MTSU Write, Aaduna.org, Ghost City Review, Celebratingchange.blog, The Pangolin Review, Memoryhouse Magazine and other literary publications including several anthologies. Jennifer stays grateful so she can stay sober, and still feels all the things.
