I have a second job right now.
It doesn’t pay much.
But if things go well,
It could go somewhere. 

There’s this guy.
He used to be the mayor
Or the governor
Or both.

He was made, finally,
Or he made himself,
Whatever,
To stand before everyone.

And with his prim, pursed lips
And the pop-pop of their cameras,
He said yes.
I had affairs.

Yes.
I slept with prostitutes.
But there’s a big difference between affairs and prostitutes!
There’s a big difference between sex and love!

He put his hands up.
The defiant white moons of wealthy nails. 

I was like fourteen when that happened.
I had nothing in my eye sockets.
Now I’m a woman—full voting age.
And I work for him, collecting signatures on the streets.

A reporter came up to me and my friends.
My friends and I,
My mother corrected me.
She knows.

The reporter wanted to know
All about what I was doing, and this and that
With all his this and that around his neck.
His cameras and pop-pop. 

Whatever.
I told him clear—do not follow us.
We can’t do press talk.
And it took 10 blocks to get away.

My mom cried with laughter when she heard this.
And brushed away her tears
With the pliant white moons of
Un-wealthy nails

And with the thought of her own husband,
My pop-pop,
Also out there proving the big difference
Between sex and love.