Pirouette

Stepping into this room and the silence screams the slow burn of my lantern nearing its demise To my surprise, what do I see? A single loose-leaf page with a single word - “Hello” Defer my judgment, nothing to be inferred blurred, perhaps a bit unsettling but I’m sure it could be worse The page nailed against the wine-stained walls I recall, the door closing behind me as she enters, draped in Persian shawls Donning sapphire satin gloves clutching a sterling silver key her saffron skin tenderly tattered by melancholy but her voice crisp as the midnight breeze “Peel back the red velvet curtain, only to find that your burdens, your sinister sermons worsen you as a person” The diminutive door our only way out slowly shrinking Fumbling floor, Flimsy earth beneath me slowly sinking My rueful restraint, reverent reasons for denial falling apart like an aging empire My doleful dame, my playful paramour pirouetting in the grace of my desire