Those women, acidic, with tattooed eyebrows, smoking, answering their men with looks. Those looks! High full hair wound, and those eyes! And those dresses. In those dresses, their thighs cut the sharpest curves. Kissing me on the mouth, booming smoker’s laughs. Getting another drink and singing. Those women of my youth, those 49th street women with dark Tierno eyes and revolvers in their purse. Those were the women of my youth, sisters&aunts&matriarchs. How they loved me, &pinched&squeezed&kissed me. You couldn’t lie to them. They didn’t fear anybody. With gold crosses over ripe bosoms and overfull hearts, those women set the bar so high.

Bio: Jim Trainer