a religious lady has mist
across her face
air near her is slippery
with a scent of sweet iron
her habit's crisp
smooth white cloth
is spattered
like silver pocked with dark
moon-craters
she sits in a bone chair
her rosary of ova
hot pearls she fiddles with
flicks & grips & counts
there is a constant
drip drip drip onto
bare oak boards
beneath her chair
and red/black threads trickle
down the chair's bone legs
into a growing pool
of bible-depth