she said, I’ll do whatever you want for a can of beer…I’ll give you anything, for a can of beer…fulfill your wildest desires…your craziest ideas…any fantasy you have, for a can of beer…

she looked at me with hollow eyes…licked her thin lips…ran bony fingers through piles of black hair…

come on baby, she teased…,I’ll give you the ride of a lifetime…do things to you that no other girl has ever done…I’ll make you feel like a man again…how long’s it been…huh…since you felt like a man…,said with a wink…

and she took my hand and led me ‘cross the street to the liquor store where there were these Japanese people speaking in foriegn tongues…looking at us…the whore and her john…giggling…pointing…at us as we perused the cold beer coolers…Lite…Budweiser…Coors…Colt 45…she chose a 40 ounce of Black Label for a buck…placing her hairy arm intertwined with mine…strolling to the front counter like two vagabonds in Paris…two bums in Montreal…

I pulled old gum wrappers out…nickels and dimes with some pennies thrown in and placed it all on the counter where the Asian woman at the register counted the money hungrily…just enough…

and the whore guzzled down beer in one long drink…then another swig…and another til it was all gone…letting out a long belch and a wipe of her pink mouth…

what’dya want…,she cried…,everybody wants somethin’…what is it you need…,her hands placed on my pants…come on, she pleaded…,tell me…your wish is my command…

I held her two frail hands and led her to a park where swings blew in the wind…and birds chirped a song…and I said to her as my request…,talk…I just want to talk…,she smiled…placed the brown bottle on the ground and kissed me on the lips…,alright…she said…,alright…

we spoke of past loves…the one’s that broke our hearts…she told me ’bout her kids in Ottawa…’bout how she gave ’em up…how she used to cry at night…how the heart hardens…

she stood up and looked at me with faraway eyes…kissed her hand and placed it on my forehead…did not say another word…just smiled…just smiled…

and then she was gone…