lil’ t wakes with the sun two hours from

the last time she cracked her eyes full of

sweat to cry the pain in her back and get ready

to work another day with smiles for the tips

and kind words for drinkers getting drunk

killing their pain

all around pain

but behind the smiles and false promises

a little girl silently cries as she goes about

the hard moments of living not knowing why

or when or who will come to ring the bell of

wonderments that raise the soul above the pain

above the wondering

above the hurt and tears and loneliness deep inside

her head

she wants to blame the tightness of her throat on

hormones or womanly chemicals that no man can

really understand, but she knows it’s deeper than

that and the questions go unanswered waiting to

be asked again and again

but there’s no sage or wise man ready to answer the

hardness of life or the loneliness we all endure when

our insides spill on the floor of our lives and we are

left wondering

is this all there is.

J. Masuda © 2008