WORTHY SORORITY

Flickered in scorching haze,

hospitable gentility,

annoyed by spread pockmarks

of perspiration

despite the fan-waving

and concealed, smelling salts.

Girdled, upholstered ladies

prattle on

about the delicious flow

of seeped-out gossip,

chewed over

with decorous indignation.

They smirk and twitter

like giggling schoolgirls

among their tea-time gatherings.