her name shows up in cold places,
like plaques on glass skyscrapers, stuffy exhalations.
police sketches amass an odd image,
a young woman's cold eyes and red smear for a grimace.
she and her shadow walk arm in arm
and ignore their companions, what
a solitary pair. no harm
in speaking violently, if in subdued tones..
if with subdued lipstick, if by subdued prose.
a signature of intricate spirals. black ink
to mark her's both money and lives, police think.
silent crimes leave their mark on (people, and) paper
can't be traced, can't be chased between lines,
she would bemusedly wager.
if the best hounds are hers, who should she fear?
it's rather hard to fear, when one is so strangely revered..
(by the police force,
of course. in scores.)
runs a small city in the the worst way she can.
answers to no petty bargaining tactic,
nor any floundering bargaining-man.
