Men Who Pay for Sex 

One study states nearly 50%
of men enjoy money
more than sex. Hence,

I have a problem with statistics.
When a twenty dollar bill 
lands spread-eagle on stage,

it isn’t Hamilton the crowd cheers,
but the stripper who swoops it up
by the most unorthodox means.

I know this sounds misogynistic
in a way that’s expected
from inmates or frat boys 

but hear me out. Friday nights I studied
economics and the lithe body
of whichever sorority sister paid me

any attention. I spent the rest
of the weekend dancing
at an all-male strip club

and at least five guys a night
would beg me to join them
in the bathroom stall

then flash two hundreds.
Whatever sadness drives men
to pay for sex

I don’t possess. Monday morning
showed up early
wearing the desperate faces

of those dismal men. If I had a choice
I’d choose sex over cash
every time. No amount of money

can teach the dumb
and wretched body not to want
what it could never afford. 

by Michael Schmeltzer

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Michael Schmeltzer earned an MFA from the Rainier Writing Workshop. His honors include numerous Pushcart Prize nominations, the Gulf Stream Award for Poetry, and Blue Earth Review’s Flash Fiction Prize. He has been a finalist for the Four Way Books Intro Prize and Levis Prize, the OSU Press/The Journal Award in Poetry, and a semi-finalist for the Zone 3 Press First Book Prize and Miller Williams Arkansas Prize. He helps edit A River & Sound Review (www.riverandsoundreview.org) and has been published in Natural Bridge, Mid-American Review, New York Quarterly, and Water~Stone Review, among many others.