Miscellaneous:

[Ariono-jovan Labu]

Wonder if she's still got that voluptuous
Coke- bottle figure,
more ass than a boricua. Still sporting
that silk- lathered Halley Berry hairdo
made her eye's glitter like polished gems.
If she's sowed the turbulence between
her parents after burning them out 50 grand
crying her three bedroom cottage
was in foreclosure
& gambled the borrowed loan on a weekend in Vegas
on Roulette/ Black Jack tables.
Wonder if she's ever sealed her criminal record
for credit- card- identity fraud & grand theft,
ever got custody her bastard child after sentenced
two years a halfway- house,
if the mandatory therapy sessions helped kick
her addiction, helped flush her veins
any craving for nose candy & thizz pills
or if she's regressed into a deeper pit of hopless
abuse & despair, if she's given back in.

Wonder if she's stopped serenading corners
the tourist districts laboring for spare change,
stopped living out cheap motels in the slums
with bi- weekly/ monthly leases,
given up karaoke those hole- in- the wall bars
stopped being a regular those drop- it- like- it's hot
juke joints wearing skimpy satin gowns & hot- pants
like some D- list celebrity.
If she's built enough self- esteem,
strength to say "No!"
every muscle bound gray- bearded sugar daddy
in tight polyester shirts selling Shakespearean sonnets
of giving her ancient moon- crystals,
sea escapades on cosmic yachts big as the Ark,
weekend ventures with penthouse views
overlooking exotic jungles of Rio,
sapphire seas of Cabos.
Wonder if she's ever learned the difference
being luved
for laid.

[PaintedDiary]

Dear Ariono,

This was a story that depicts a motion picture life of many. Beautifully crafted. Only you a master sinner of words could write this as if we know her, as if we have a friend like that, as if we seen her on tv or the street. The title is most fitting for the story to follow. I must have read this 5 times. The trials and tribulations one could feel and feel sorry for her. You built the character perfectly. The ending lines are spectacular to this story and leaves the question and the storem (story + poem) lingering in our minds never to forget. Bravo my brother, bravo.

Kimberly

[erikestabrook]

you have to be the best at these chronicles of the misfortuned