I Did It for the Money

I Did It for the Money

Don’t call me names, love

You paid to watch

you enjoyed it asi did

Red light buzzing

bare floor, cracked mirror

I danced, I smiled, I spat

I wore the cheap perfume

the heels that split my toes

I swallowed your lies like gin

held your breath in my hands

and charged you extra to talk

It wasn’t dreams I chased

just rent, just food,

just coins dropped in a pint glass

while men pretended I was

anyone but me

I stripped your power

while you thought you took mine

counted every folded note

like they were medals

and walked home with grit

on the soles of my soul

Don’t ask if I liked it

Don’t ask if I cried

I did it for the money

not for love,

not for thrill,

not for any fool’s redemption

You want pretty?

Go find a poem in a frame

with rhymes and lace

This one smells of sweat

and truth

and me your dirty secret

This is just a Poem not about me the writer or my life