Girl on Lake Street
A Poem
Published in
2 min readJul 5, 2023
Johns come to this part of Lake Street to find
sex workers who’ll settle for the cost of a fix.
It’s colder and bleaker than usual
with this winter’s weak light and grungy snow banks,
separating the sidewalk from the road and
impatient drivers in cars that spit out mud and ice
as they charge through — or cruise restlessly.
A girl walks, stumbling at times, on the hard-packed sidewalk.
Her skin-tight and thin, orange, green, and yellow patterned slacks
strike a pitifully poor defense against the cold; and self-interested men.
She passes with an unwavering, lenient smile
and a bright line of blood running from her nose to her mouth —
looking for all the world like things are as they should be.
I drive on, feeling saddened and shaken.
