The bare-breasted nun prays
in front of children
as their parents snap photos of anything but her body.
She is not the memory they want of this place.
Her habit hangs far below
her puckered lips,
and for $45, she’ll show you what spring is like on Jupiter.

The moon over the Bellagio
is Frank Sinatra’s ghost,
still a source of entertainment,
his voice in the feathered hips
of showgirls on the strip.

Another business card flicks,
ladies with diamond nipples
and apathy in their eyes
hang from chandeliers,
their paper portraits
trampled and nameless
on the streets of Las Vegas.
How quick is a quick fuck?

$35 special from Mindy
$50 off Candy
$100 off Natalie.

In other words,
a kiss for a dollar,
a hand job for 35,
a trip to the moon and back, complete
with an all you can eat buffet.

In Caesar’s Palace
they have clouds made of marble,
and dragons in the ballrooms
where dead celebrities play the piano all night.

—–

Nicole Lourette is a recent graduate of Chatham University’s MFA program and lives in Pittsburgh, PA. She is a 24-year-old biracial woman of color. She is on Twitter, @nlourette