Ruby's Blues

Body for sale, cheap
glass necklace dangling, an elegant noose.
Hard drag a Camel
a story about Miami

robbed for everything but
her red dress; more travelled
than ten dollar bills.

Road map skin,
highway veins whispering
an ancient sigh, a quarter high.

Of the alley, she notes
this one well lit like none other,
like a Coltrane number,
as the bums' bed down with cardboard songs
and newspaper melodies, where

the gap closes between
dust to dust
and ashes to ash,
the Bible belt and a dream.

A cigarette flick,
wet gutter tucking her hair behind
gallons of movie star smiles--

She's only asking for change.

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