Maybe Someday

Red hair and a black bow.
Slender fingers and a tarnished ring.
Slim figure and a ratty black bra.
A battered wallet with only pennies.
She spent all the rest on a temporary high.
Her lord can't save her anymore.
Working night shifts at the video store.
Dealing with perverts 8-12.
It's not a life, but it's cash.
A way to work her way to the top of the chain.
But she doesn't know that all she's working are the
local joints and married men.
Sipping coffee at 1 in the morning.
She's reading one of those trashy romance novels.
Knowing happy endings only exist between those pages.
Maybe someday she'll shake the habit.
Maybe someday she'll be able to pay tuition.
And maybe someday she'll be OK.
Maybe she'll be able to save a little.
But in between the gas and water bills
and the cigarettes,
there's never enough.
Enough to drive until the sun shines.
Until all her sorrows fade.
Until the street lights no longer look the same.
Until her smile slowly comes back.
Or at least until her watch reads 8 and her shift
starts again.
A slave to the same hours and the same addiction.