Baby-Sitter

She's everybody's baby-sitter ⋯ but nobody's baby ⦾ She is the baby-sitter you call, because you have nowhere else to go ⦾ She always answers the phone ⋯ So sorry, I'm already booked. ⦾ She's the one who says, I'm sorry, I can't make it tonight, but would you like me to come tomorrow? ⦾ And then she's the one who says, You're a smart boy. You know your life. Take care of yourself. ⦾ She's the girl you might have met before ⋯ but can't remember her name ⦾ Her name is Yolanda ⋯ She's a night virtuoso ⦾ She's a devil-may-care vixen in a satin slip ⦾ She's a tall blonde with an uncanny resemblance to Oprah Winfrey ⦾ She's what you get when you cross the Cocteau Twins with Madonna

She's a pop star ⋯ and she's not an ingenue ⦾ She's a brilliant singer ⋯ but nobody wants to hear her sing ⦾ She's a character in a play ⋯ but it's not a farce ⦾ She's a favorite actress ⋯ but she's not in Hollywood ⦾ She's a political critic ⋯ but nobody's political ⦾ She's a writer of foreign affairs ⋯ but nobody cares about foreign affairs ⦾ She's a historian of the arts ⋯ but nobody's interested in the arts ⦾ She's an art historian who writes novels ⋯ but everybody's heard the novels already ⦾ She's a beauty, with a good mind, who can sing and play the piano ⋯ but she doesn't care ⦾ She's a painter in her own right ⋯ but nobody wants to see her paintings ⦾ She's an artist who has been in several museums ⋯ but nobody knows who she is ⦾ She's not a politician herself ⋯ but she works for one ⦾ She's Robert Johnson and Jimi Hendrix ⋯ an atomic weapon ⋯ a bullet splitting a watermelon

She's a high school student with an unhealthy fixation. She's a teenage girl who, by her own admission, has made promises to God that she cannot keep ⦾ She's got a lollypop and a red ribbon, a yellow, sickly smile ⦾ She's got a white sheet and a black hood ⋯ she's got a gas-mask with a red snout ⦾ She's your best friend's best friend and your girlfriend's girlfriend and if you're lucky, she'll give you a beer ⦾ It doesn't matter what kind of mood you're in or how fucked up you are, she's everyone's drink ⦾ She'll drive you home from the bar in her car ⦾ In the backseat, she'll have your beer but she won't let you touch it ⦾ Because it's her beer too

She's a bad girl, but she really loves her mom ⦾ She's a bag lady, but she wears Armani ⦾ She's a cloned centaur, but she's just a clone ⦾ She's an invisible woman, but she's become a woman ⦾ She's a prostitute, but she only cares about money ⦾ She's the cuckoo bird, but she spent the summer in Morocco ⦾ She's the daughter of a scientist, but she's more of an artist ⦾ She's a refugee, but all she wants is to be an artist ⦾ She's an actress, but she'd rather be an artist ⦾ She's an alien princess, but she just keeps her head down ⦾ She's a mime, but no one believes she ever was one ⦾ She's an alien princess, and we're all just prisoners of her beauty ⦾ She's a super-model ⋯ a super-model who looks like a guy ⦾ She's a member of the Swiss parliament ⦾ She's from Russia, she's from Switzerland, she's from the United States of America

She's the one who rushes to the front of the line at your aunt's funeral, who stands in a puddle on the beach as she watches you play in the waves ⦾ She's a plastic doll, one of hundreds in a trunk ⦾ She eats ice cream for breakfast and reads Catskill Review for lunch ⦾ She's in the air conditioner, under the bed, in the closet. She's in the television, in the toilet, in the kitchen. She's in the oven and on fire, in the refrigerator, on the stove and in the bathtub