Descent into Hades, stiletto edition
A sky-heeled woman

Dips her toe into the

Escalator Styx

A child seeking to enter

The snap of a staircase spun by

Schoolyard sadists

Once more:

And now the river is changed

And she is off, a-clop!

A mechanical chevalier

Stirruping metal grooves

Clasping black rubber rein.


Bathroom congregation
Co-conspirators hold closed

confession booth doors

as penance for guilty texting 
Hands are cupped beneath

a vestment-white dryer –

to receive a breathy communion 
A scarf is looped in the

sign of the cross, with

fingers rosarying its tasselled length
Voices are murmurs

eyes are low

and purses are held

air-port tight.