Belle de Jour calls it self-
empowerment at three-
hundred pounds an hour
to pay university fees but
the shot-silk Burmese
teens treading bath foam
in Patpong might suggest
otherwise—if allowed to
speak—curious maybe
at the banking of after-
dinner-speaker rates and
the callgirl’s uncontrollable
smile—tithed as they are
to trafficking and the
plow of stag weekends
James Byrne