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Stained walls flickered sickly,
Neon ghosts, pallid, fleeting.
Faint projections from the brothel
Through the broken window gleaming,
Off the needles and the bottles
Littering the squalid shanty
Where I sold my body cheaply
The shadow of a stranger
Pressed its way in through the doorway.
Standing, staring in the refuse
At the mattress in the corner,
At the filthy sheets and covers,
At the girl by the window
Sitting, waiting for companions
I stood and faced the shadow
Of the stranger in my bedroom.
He who crept in stealthy, sneaking,
Like a dormant seed that sprouted,
Standing, staring in the refuse
Past the mattress and the bed sheets
At the harvest by the window.
A shudder rippled through me,
Sordid murmurs catching, wheezing.
“Put your money on the table.”
And I moved to pull the covers,
Making ready for my business
In the night a feverish temptress,
Seeking nothing but a living.
Refractions from the brothel
Red and vicious, slashing, seething,
Filled the room with lust and wanton.
Demon voices laughing, hissing.
“Drop your money on the table.
Let us stain you with her body,
Lock your soul in mortal pleasures.”
From the shadow just a whisper
Sad and poignant, rending, weeping
As he reached out toward me softly
And I saw his hands were bleeding.
Wrists and feet were torn and crimson.
Drops of blood upon the rubbish.
And he said, “I’ve bought you fully.”
In my mind a faded yearning
Both ephemeral and yellowed
Of a steeple and a message
Of a girl bent at an altar
And a father’s hands enfolded
While a mother’s tears flowed freely
For the hopeful prayer that blossomed.
Then the voices from the brothel
Demon accents spat deriding,
“You’re not worthy, you’re not worthy.”
And I turned in shame, in hiding
Toward the fetter in the corner
With the filthy sheets and covers.
Toward that dark, corporeal prison.
There was movement in the chamber
And I feared that he was leaving.
But I felt him move in closer,
Felt his breath of life upon me.
It was on me, o’re me, in me,
Swirling fresh and new and mighty.
And I cried out “Oh, please save me.”
Shrieked the voices in the neon,
Red and beating from the brothel,
Screamed and howled in foul derision
As they glistened off the needles
And the remnants of my bondage.
But they failed to squelch the newness
In my heart, a gentle beating.
Then the shadow grew and strengthened,
Neon smashed with righteous thunder,
And his bloody hand, the window,
As the sky burst forth with rainfall.
Holy bathed and newly baptized,
Forsake all temporal riches
Prosper ceaseless, everlasting
Sheltered close, redeemed, forgiven.
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