The Good-Time Girl
A poem by Julia R. DeStefano
The Good-Time Girl
Exhausted, I feel
though I want to ride your merry-go-round
until my thighs chafe
from the welcome friction.
The burn reminds me I am alive.
The warmth an elixir to soothe
the perpetual chill in my soul.
You know I had been a woman
with love as pure as dark chocolate
but only conjured when convenient,
seen but not heard, heard but not seen -
my existence dependent on circumstance.
I had given my body to it,
given my laugh, my ears, my mind, my heart -
given my all for it
if it might somehow bring me
my one desire in the end —
a quiet, peaceful happiness.
A voice other than my own
for a while if not forever.
The saccharine taste of hope
propelling me
because I have only ever wanted
a simple kind of life
where I finally admit one
who won’t live without my laugh and smile
playing a starring role in his carnival world,
and hops on beside me.
© Julia R. DeStefano
