mis-additions

sure in her body, finally confident

in her skills, on her birthday she counts piercings and tattoos,

pounds lost and men tossed,
unhad babies, unhad marriages,

unhad dreams come true.

and fool,

she sums up her life in one word:

rejection.  and cries herself to sleep after

singing aretha at karaoke and winning trivia with bar crawlers,

after betting a blow job and winning.

forgetting she can grow tomatoes

and pull the cart when the oxen fall,
she is solitary, upstanding and finally

faithful after all:
that with her, only love will never come.