[breathless]

What a stunning disgrace, the wrinkles of time have smothered her face.
Still, she thinks it's sublime, but her mother is shamed, and her brother's enraged.
Never one to engage in such troublesome ways... So she drinks as she grinds.
On the brink of her finding that what covers the pain just doesn't erase...
the past problems she's running away from, acting like it's not a bother.
What if she hadn't have watched her father bash her momma in her young and bold days?
Would it have had an impact? Would something have changed? No way to tell really...
Her dad was still absent as she shuddered and blamed the same old story and felt silly.

As a toddler, she was born free, dancing around may poles with friends and braiding ribbons.
Then the family fell apart, torn to pieces, as it ended she started dating women.
Not out of love, but hatred, for the feeling of men and the part they were playing in it.
This led her to the stage, acting as the one and only relation, a stranger's kinship.

The music blasted, she shook it in stride, hips swaying in time with what her youth had crafted.
Useless bastards, disgusting perverts, tossing their hard earned money up under her fur skirts.
Returning their leers with coy looks and a grin, but boy, was hers snide, crooked and dim.
But not stupid, after all she'd been through she'd got used to the matter and took it all in.

Years passed, a regular in Big Tom's club, yet always a loner, and never into drugs.
She grew loose, skin sagging and fatter, stacking bankrolls, her books had grown thick.
The owner loved her, the only other one independent and respectable, but she'd never known it.
Fears grasped her again, well aware of the imminent end and her sheltered onus.

Then it happened, backstage, she was caught off guard with an oh shit moment.
Tom grabbed her by the arm, "Damn it all, it's my last day, I know it", so she thought...
Waiting to be told she was fired, scared of retirement, just to hear the words brought notions of maturity.
With barely enough saved to make it the next couple decades to social security...
He sighed, "Well, Helen, I'm going to have to let you go...", "No!", "...but, not, it's odd... Only from your job."
"Wait, what... You know my real name?" He laughs, startled, "Yes dear, see, I'd like you to be my partner..."
"But, I clearly don't know a thing about running a business, I can't, out of fairness."
He grins, "I didn't mean it like that...Come here, I'd like to ask, for your hand in marriage."

As he kneels down, she feels the tears drown her sorrow without sadness for the first time in her life, blessed.
"Are you sure you wanna do this? I hope you're certain, Tom, the truth is, I'm quite a mess."
"It's like I said, you're my better half, something I never had, I knew it the whole time, you're perfect, I just wish that you'd fight less."
..."Well, I guess, there's something else you should know... I'm still a virgin... So I'll be needing a white dress."