On the subway seat
feeding her needs
through long slender fingers
pop the rosary beads and
each bead a bullet
to load the gun.

What son of man decrees this?

She's twenty looks fifty and
has the eyes of a sorceress
which is probably so.

Every age throws up a sage
some sayer of truths.
Some say that it's her on
the seat,
she beats time to the beads
feeding her needs,
bullets for the gun
and one for
her son.