Ciao, Darlings

The women

out of place

in a black dress with a neck line too low

revealing a décolletage

crumpled like a rejected manuscript

her greeting

her way of leaving the impression

she had recently summered in Venice.

Those people

whispering as she passed

because they found her

incredibly

seductive

influential

or both

as she believed

her mind not being what it used to.

She was neither.