Pictures of the Mistress

1.  She's eating an apple

Sitting on her front stoop

Waiting for him to show up in his nice car

And take her to dinner

Somewhere he wouldn't take his wife

Using the excuse

That they can't afford it

On the budget they're on

And what his wife doesn't know

Is he got a raise two months ago

And it's all gone to nice restaurants

And girls sitting on stoops

Eating apples

And this is the first picture

That the photography student

Who lives underneath her took

Right as the summer

Was deciding whether or not it wanted to hang around

For another few weeks

2.  The second picture he took of her

In bed, so tacky

So predictable

But there it is

Covers down so you can see her breasts

Because they're nice breasts

So why hide them

And she's smiling that smile that says

I hope your wife sees this one day

3.  In the third picture she's smoking

It was her first cigarette after quitting smoking

Two days earlier because she could use the extra money

And she doesn't need another thing that should be quit

Hanging around in her life

And he hadn't called in a week

Because he went on vacation with his family

And he didn't even tell her
So now she's smoking
And fuck you for looking at her
And by the way
This is another photo from that student
Underneath her
Who fucked her two minutes
After she was done
With the cigarette

'You gonna leave him?'
'No'
'Why not?'
'He's good in bed'
'And?'
'Why does there need to be an "and?"'

4.  The fourth photo is one she took from his office

It's him and his wife and his kids

In one of those fake Western photos

Where they make the photo all grainy and orange

To make it look authentic

She played around on her computer

And photoshopped herself into the photo

But she couldn't get the color right

So it just looks like there's this orange woman

In a bathing suit

Standing next to this nice family

On vacation

She felt it was...appropriate

5.  The student underneath her

Took the photo of her and the married man

Arguing, fighting, getting fingers in faces

Tears showing up every now and again

Words so strong you can see them

An inch away

From the face of the person

They're about to hit

In the photo you can see that she's getting them

All of them

One after another

Harder than a slap

Stronger than a fist

Something not even a photo can capture

6.  The last photo is one the married man took
Of her sitting on his car
The day before he stopped calling for good

His wife found the photo on his phone
The one of her
And her breasts
And the smile

She got her wish
His wife found it
And all she did in response
Was tell him to stop
And don't forget to pick up the kids
After basketball practice

In the photo she's sitting on the car
With her arms outstretched
Looking like she could fill a room
From wall-to-wall

She's got sunglasses on
And a blue dress
That's so ugly
Only a pretty girl would wear it

She's biting her lower lip
Laughing at something
Laughing at him
Laughing about the fact
That she just told a boy, a student, a photographer
Not only two hours earlier
That he should leave her alone
Even though she knows
It'll take him months, maybe years
To get over her

She's just hurt someone
And she's laughing
Because she no longer cares
Because she can't care
Because if she cares then she'll cry
And if she cries she'll scream
And she'll be screaming and crying
And cursing herself
And only herself

Not the married man
Because he's forty and married
And boring
So of course he does what he does
It's like a lion eating cute little gazelle babies
It's what they do

But she's not a lion
She's a woman
Who hurts other women
Who hurts young men
Who hurts herself

Who poses for photos
Hoping the wrong people will see them