I saw a man with his arm around her.
She was smiling, but not leaning in.
Laughing at his jokes, but her eyes weren’t gleaming genuinely
like they do when she really finds something funny.
She’s an actress on his arm.
An actress in his bed.
She plays his game because she needs his money.
Why couldn’t this woman, a physician, earn enough to live on in her own country?
What economic injustice keeps her prostituting to tourists in Thailand,
when she’s more educated than much of her clientele?
A true irony:
She’s working here to put her daughter through university back home.
The dream failed her,
but still she dreams for her daughter.