Two Suitors

Small white spotted

Dog follows them

Everywhere.

Rutting its wet nose

Into the new, unfamiliar

Territory.

She holds the parasol

Tightly angled out from her

Hip

Watching the thick

Shadow cast

Onto the

Strange waters

Below.

They try to talk to her.

Hasn't been

Outside in months

A death sentence

By two words;

Female hysteria.

Something about

A dinner coming up -

Convince her,

Convince her.

A barrage of ill-fated

Suitors with eyes drunk on

The color green

The fat one

An Italian wrote poetry -

Badly, every day

And the thin one with the scar

A flair

With approaching

Fat whores

Who played the mandolin -

Badly and at

The balcony, every day.

They spoke desperately -

One-upping each other

While she completely

Ignored them.

She saw no wit.

No valor.

She smiled because if she didn’t

They’d give her an ice bath -

She feigned interest

Because if she didn’t she

Would go back

To that horrible

Place.

She waited

For her dog to come back

To her side, whining

Quietly until

She turned to continue

The perilous journey

Home with two

Money-sick sycophants

Trailing behind her.