XXX

Trisha works the triple-X place out on the interstate.
She was trained to be a teacher, but she needed to get paid.
She tells me, “Never fall for love, boy, and you’ll never be betrayed.
Mine’s a hard life, but I’ve chosen to keep going.”

She asks me, “Is it better in your dreams?
That surely ain’t the way it is with me.
No, my visions are dimmer than my reality.
Mine’s a hard life, but I’ve chosen to keep going.

“And I’ve got a little boy at home.
I keep praying to No One that when he’s grown
He’s gonna be honest unlike any of the bastards I have known.
Mine’s a hard life, but I’ve chosen to keep going.

“Go on and show me the bright side, and I can tell you why it’s a lie.
There ain’t one thing in Odessa, Missouri gonna go my way before I die.

“They all say I should sing another tune.
But tell me what’s a girl like me to do:
I don’t suffer fools gladly and consider lovers fools.
Mine’s a hard life, but I’ve chosen to keep going.”

Ours was not much of a romance.
It had not been much of a lap dance.
But before she’d let me get up from the table,
Trisha made sure that I had paid her
For all her advice.