a melee of flesh and gaudy colors
dancing away their youth
degenerate
degraded
poor lost little girl
selling her body like caramel
in a candy store

different flavored lights flicker
wrapping around their gyrating torsos
arms and hands flailing
aching to grasp something incomprehensible

and the air is filled with smoke
smelling of cloves and Camels and sweat
and that of something resembling hunger
(a sign ‘do not feed the animals’ hangs above the dj)

I kick back to watch the rest of this
the circus show before me.

© Crystal S. McDonald.