memoir of a footnote

she restrained a fugitive bull
walrus at the cincinnati zoo
with an old pair of pearl
spider stockings.

she preferred silk
as she preferred
the term criminal
to inmate.

a stab
at country music stardom
forever branded her a muse
pure blasts
of immortal morse code

embedded in vinyl records,
spun in the shadows
cast by marquee crooners

 her trick?
slipping pictures
into books
she’d read

worked less and less
as the bookcases
devolved
into wall paper.

getting out of bed—
like unpressing
a hand print
from cement—

upset
the dust
gathered
on her vanity.