Olga

We were texting.
Olga said, 4 a portrait.
I told her no 1 does ur portrait in the middle of the night.

She knew,
yanno,
to be careful of older guys in chat rooms and stuff,
but this one walked right in,
said get ready,
come downstairs.

I said, where r ur jewels?
She said, in my dress, stitched inside.
She sent me a j-peg.
I said you rock that, girl. Now sneak
out. Meet me at Bigby's.

She said idk.
I said, they got BOGO. Just come.
She sent an emoji and that was it.

Years later, living in New York City and older than shit,
we still were BFFs.
She'd been sober 27 years.
I'd been divorced twice.
Sometimes she'd see Putin on the television and trash him in Russian.
I found her a meme of him falling off a horse,
and showed it to her on my phone.

We laughed til I started coughing.
She banged her palm against my back until I could breathe.
"Thanks, Your Highness."
"Fuck you," said Olga, but she meant "welx".
_____

for Izy's Out Of Standard.