Emily (a three year old draft I never got around to revising)

We sat around a bonfire.

It was a cold night and the wind kick smoke into the air,

sometimes changing direction right into your face.

There were few of us - maybe a shift’s worth-

and it was only the one’s that I liked.

There were the shifts - the two that made working worthwhile -

and there was the girl with black skin. Under-aged. Sexual with a calming charm.

Then was the party girl...Emily...and her boyfriend,

the luckiest man in metro Detroit,

because to have a girl like Emily would make the rest of life seem like a dream -

like waking up would be like dying,

and staying asleep would feel like living.

She kissed him.

I took a drink.