A Revelation in a Strip Bar

I wanted to do what I wanted

so sick of toeing the line
sowing good impressions
playing it safe,
mostly it falls apart anyway

I wanted to do what I wanted

The first girl was a college student
an expatriate Brit with pale moled skin like mine
and sparkling blue eyes;
She liked Edgar Allan Poe
so we discussed him over champagne tinged with red-bull
proudly and self-consciously intelligent:
then we talked about my travels
in Thailand, Mexico, and Sweden

Her skin was as vital as the jungles of Chiang Mai
and her curves were voluptuous and divine

The next girl "Rocky"
was even more curvily attractive, honestly,
but not so sensitive or cultivated;
I swam in tequilla and tipped
the strippers I didn't want
(and performed a juggling act
when Rocky suggested I was smashed)

Insipid, cowardly, angry white men dressed like "gangstas"
gave me green, resentful looks
as I threw green around
(tear-gas in my pocket)

It was all dangerously enlightening and wonderful