Lana Del Rey’s haunting song Carmen tells a story of a young girl with an addictive aura that attracts all who lay eyes upon her. In reality, Carmen is hurting, but she covers up her pain with drunken smiles. It is a sad story, inspired by Vladimir Nabokov’s novel Lolita and Carmen, a novella by Prosper Mérimé. In a moment of inspiration, I wrote this poem, following a young sex slave whose one wish is… well, read it and you will find out.
A Woman,
Stolen in the cover of night,
Lies in a dirty motel bed,
Struggling,
Pregnant at 15,
Her Baby, dead in her arms,
She sells Her body, Her mind, Her soul,
To the Devils whose Hell is on Earth,
Beaten and Bruised,
Suffocated by heavy, sweaty bodies,
Drowning in a sea of uncertainty,
Alone,
She makes men happy,
…yet she is dead inside,
She tried to kill herself last night,
…the pimp wouldn’t let her,
Her body begs for relief,
Here she is again,
Half-naked,
Draped in dirty sheets,
Violated and Abused,
Lolita,
they call her,
Abandoned by morning,
Slivers of fluorescents lights,
Flicker through the curtains,
Like fireflies,
She wishes to be like the lights,
Free.
