The Exquisite Expiration of Effie the Elevator Girl

Loneliness had somehow crept through the walls of the Waldorf Astoria

After all, that's what happens when a war has gone amuck

The sound of once laid plans drowned out by the haunting big band wafting through the box

Up and down and up and down and up and down and up and down she went

An invisible--a mute--a wallflower to the glossimers of high society

She had been dressed by someone else

A burgundy pant suit with the obligatory gamboge fringe

Somewhere along the line she had gotten used to counterfeit regality

Her beauty had gone unnoticed, shielded by the snood and the dregs of being a glorified bellhop

Her kindness and compassion was overlooked--daily--hourly--by the second, in fact

The leading of a solitary life

Up and down and up and down and down

And once--on a Saturday--her lip began to bleed profusely--dripping onto the carpet of the car

The stranger in the hall noticed

then offered his handkerchief--even though it was in a Cagney

And she was moved by this gesture

As she reached her hand out to take it, the car plummeted without so much as a noise

save the swift rush of air down the shaft

The magnificent severance of her top hat--of her top half--of--

the remainder vacant of any liveliness beside her half smile--

staring up at him

And the rest

under a deep plunge into the concrete abyss;

where she would remain--

invisible, a mute, a wallflower