I Want~~A Poem of Longings

I want, and I want
is her mental mantra,
no matter the circumstance--
sweating in the bowels of the city,
standing on the subway platform
alongside a homeless man
wearing a belt fashioned from twine.

I want, I want.
Her longings etched hollows beneath her dark eyes
and she would pick at her nails and curse the chipped polish.

I'm not the sob story, she stressed.
I graduated from college, she explained.

So why the long face?--her grandmother used to say.

I want, I want
plastic surgery to tighten the abs and lift the breasts--
a designer handbag that isn't a knockoff purchased
from a New York street vendor.
A beach house getaway because her parents
never invested in shore real estate and look at them,
curled up at home like overfed cats, bird watching.

Pipe dreams--her father used to say.

When she won her fortune without fanfare,
she thought it was a misprint on her weekly Wednesday scratch-off.

I want, I want
erupted from her contorted lips,
her gargoyle-face misshapen with ecstasy
unearned, undeserved.