jasmine

This is the 4th poem in my collection I sent for the GPA 2007 poetry competition.

It is said that if you dropped out of school, the males turn to the gangs, and the females turn to the nightclubs and cabarets, for the only assets they have are their good looks and bodies. Such is the tragedy of the lost and under-privileged.

Sorry about something this bleak to end the year.



drawing by dsnake1
image scanned and enhanced by dsnake1


jasmine



jasmine squatted with her friends
at the stair landing.
she was spiking her cigarette
with heroin,
pushing the white stuff in
with a earpick, then wetting
the paper before lighting it.
jasmine, not yet eighteen,
was pretty, but her eyes
spoke with suicidal fury.
tonight she was wearing
a tight spaghetti strap top
accentuating her firm breasts
and a short mini-skirt
showing off those silky legs.

soon after her fix,
she will go down these stairs
and hail a taxi
to the cabaret where she works.
you think i want this life,
she would ask me
let those lechers touch me?
no, she's in for the money,
everyone's bleeding her for the money
her parents, her siblings
her useless junkie boyfriend.
there were always almost tears
in those mascaraed eyes.
that's why she smokes the smack
trying to forget the pain, the shame.
carrying the weight of many
parasites on those rounded shoulders
she stood up,
straightened her skirt
and went down those grimy stairs
in her stilettos,
in clothes
that were not meant
for her age.


03/09/06
********
© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 )

to jasmine, and peg and annie and linda, wherever they are now.