POETRY
A Precious Soul
standing at a busy corner in neon-glittered night,
red dress exposing skin, perfume wafting pleasure
to passerby. Half-lidded eyes tracing her shape,
some indifferent, a few soft, expressing pity, compassion.
Need some money for drugs and her babies, no other reason.
Dangers, fights for best places to work, violent customers.
No exits out of this room, she figured. Difficult to see
through thickening smoke, rising heat, greed of flame.
She saw no way out of the city.
Trembling, relieved, someone finally moving towards her,
shadow emerging from nearby darkness. Same business
or something else, face hard to read. Later, visiting her dealer,
going home, checking on children, heating ice in glass pipe,
breathing and breathing it in, used to poison. Bathing,
washing herself, scrubbing her flesh, never feeling clean,
never feeling fresh.
Scott Schuleit is a follower of God, a husband to his dear, lovely wife Christina, and the Associate Pastor at North Palm Baptist Church. His poems have appeared in various publications, including Christianity & Literature. He is the author of A Pernicious Correspondence: Letters from a Devil (Prevail Press, 2021).
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Heart of Flesh Literary Journal 