Silk Reticence

A carnival of mystics and angels

floated in the wintery glaze of her eyes.

A diffident smile, tucked beneath porcelain lipstick,

wavered near the line of fault.

This temptation of fate, to evacuate a strangulating shell,

dipped on the spirit of waves;

a rise to liberty, a collapse to servility,

nearer this time to abandoning her silk reticence -

bearing the iron cloak of intrepid queens.