The Linoleum Headquarters | Mia Spiller

Straight backed and tight lipped,

She commands her office.

Constant ringing, conversing on the Kremlin-Whitehouse hotline

Seeping through the cracked tiles,

Gloves of Bolivian rubber; a foreign policy triumph.

Ordering about the troops, wearing the white feather in the face of chores

Two-step in her slippers

The shift ends

Jazz and brandy can only do so much

To quieten the hum...

She hovers around most notes, pervasive

Never making a sound of her own