The Scarlet Lady Under the Lamp Light

The scarlet lady stands under the slanted lamplight

Waiting for the predators of the night

And maybe a handgun, and may be tomorrow

*

She will find some way to waste the cursed affliction;

Avoid eviction; satiate the haunted hunted addiction.

Get a job ; maybe in a restaurant

Get therapy; but for now she’s vigilant.

**

The cars cruise by the kerb, and a punter slows down;

One sicko tonight, dressed in his partner’s bridal gown.

Sometimes she wants to use that gun and somehow blast away the sickness

Lance the abscess; rid her soul of this wretchedness.

***

For now she hopes again and despises herself as the car draws near;

And her heart is full of fear; but the hardened eye will allow no tear;

Bracing herself she sees her child in a ragged tent, ravished with Malaria

In her war torn village in Somalia

****

Were death to take him from her now

She could in peace avow;

To end this double death of her tortured soul

And go gladly into that dark pit , of deaths black hole

*****

But each week she saves , and sends some money home,

And prays whispering at that celestial dome,

That she can somehow have him here,

That’s all that matters now; to have him near.