At the Belmont

Cross-bar insignia, engraved invitation,
attendees requested and willingly bring
with impacted heels hard on the crust
of the grid of traffic and into elevators
with polished mirrors, oak insulating
the static lair between their bodies
and breathing a low pressure beyond
the locked clasps of the briefcase.

The cards played at night
in the banquet room, and it was
a straight flush of clubs
when the decision actualized
while the strapless lady turned her way,
dropping the diamonds from her
velvet purse down the air shaft,
unbreakable, while scattering,
cantering chime of irked hard cut
echos in a formidable architecture.

The trusses and then the diaphragm
to flux a moment for conclusion.
She had walked in ready to betray
in service to her much older love,
carking bets of an unknown
percentage on the felt topped table.

Ongoing consequence, continual ante
from the personality in the variance
of relationships. Colonnaded halls
that resolve in a weary denouement.
The gargoyles above the entrance.
They mouth a cold lakeside carried in
to the bus stop in a grey wind tussling
about the indissoluble, careless
as the grin from the tooth chipped curb.