at summer's end, she is in the
fabled city of light, drifting in
a romantic evening of soft breezes,
streets majestically lined with trees,
the brilliant and luminous eiffel tower

she is thinking of those she turned
against, people she had once trusted,
admired, adored, loved - and then spurned -
her mother, husband, sister, brother,
friends, each one falling away like
those endless bouquets presented to
her at state visits...bright, beautiful
flowers, their petals dropping, dreamlike,
from her arms, falling like little pieces
of flesh floating lazily to the ground

she faces the tunnel now, fearful that she
might disappear in the cavern of lights,
the glistening mercedes, almost airborne,
moves at a furious speed, she ends up
trapped in the car, slammed against a
wall, she does not even know, in this
moment of profound loss, that she has
no voice to speak, to call out, to plead,
her eyes fluttering wildly at the lights
glaring at her in the tunnel