CHEAP NOT EASY

CHEAP NOT EASY

I may be cheap but I'm not easy,
For life is expensive and seldom breezy.
I have to choose my luxuries, take wine without cheese.
My money invested in fighting disease.

Like a cheap whore in the prostitute store,
I'll rise and I'll primp for you, may even pimp for you,
It only takes a few dollars on the nightstand,
To make me follow on demand.
But don't expect a comfy ride,
We'll have to buck the raging tide.
The Colorado rapids have nothing on me.
I can drown so very easily,
In the river of my sorrow.
Hold on tight for all your might,
Pray like there's no tomorrow.

Pray the nausea from the drugs subsides,
Or my sadness will soon take a dive,
In this life there's only one thing sure,
The disease is not much worse than the cure.
I don't feel like high-fiving, for I'm far too busy writhing,
Like a soft pretzel in the mall, impossible contortions,
And when I raise my voice to speak,
There's only a whimper or distortion.
I have my wisdom and my masculine wiles,
Irresistible temptations of painted on smiles,
But it takes a conneisseur to appreciate,
The delicacy of my condition,
The fickleness of my fate.

Careful or I'll drag you down with me,
Into the maelstrom, into the whirlpool,
Give you a lesson in melancholy,
They never taught in trade school.
It's not that I'm not cunning, it's not I'm undiscerning,
Illness is my finest teacher and I admit that I'm still learning.
I'll take second billing, and I'm more than willing,
To give my love at a discounted rate,
You know not what you're getting into,
The gravity or the weight.
I sell my love cheap, trade in sex for eight hours' sleep,
Sometimes break down, uncontrollably weep.

I need your good strong arms, to hold me like a good luck charm,
I put my lasting faith in loyalty and fidelity.
I do not ask for miracles or cures you can't deliver,
Every now and then just make me quiver,
Like you did in days of yore,
I may be broke but I am not poor,
As long as I have you by my side.
With me on this lonesome ride.

Not to pontificate, not to philosophize,
We may just have to downsize,
Tailor our dreams, take wine without cheese,
Our nest egg invested in fighting disease.
Patience, my dear, toughen up, kid,
It's hard being hitched to an invalid.

Though it's dark before the dawn,
Disease like a leech, it bites down and holds on.
Though the miracle sometimes comes too late,
Though I disappoint and I sink like a dead weight
And though it gets a tad bit queasy,
What God has joined together let no man tear apart,
I may be cheap, but I'm not easy.
And you will always have my heart.

-Bruce Potts
Copyright 2013
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED