Betrayal

She waits in the hotel vestibule,
a book in one hand, trying to stay cool,
fur coat draped over the other,
one eye on the hotel elevator.

She doesn’t want to be here so late,
all she can do is sit and wait,
watching couples drink and flirt
while all she knows is that love hurts.

When the elevator opens, she looks
up and waves, smiles, and her book
crashes to the polished marble floor—
his arms are around his paramour.

His face freezes as she struggles to stand,
a revolver in her trembling hand.
A shot— and the lobby fills with screams,
the kind you might hear in bad dreams.

Kim M. Russell, 18^th April 2026

On Day 18 of NaPoWriMo, the optional prompt was inspired by a book of poems in Maureen’s house “that was heavy on long, maudlin, narrative poems with lots and lots of rhyme”, some of which can be fun to read, like Sadakichi Hartmann’s ‘The Pirate’ or Alfred Noyes’ ‘The Highwayman’, in which the action is dramatic and the imagery is striking.

We’re not being challenged to write long, dramatic, narrative poems, but to write a poems that could be a section or piece of one. We should include rhyme, unlikely and dramatic scenes; basically, a poem with the plot of an opera. Not really my cup of tea, but I’ve given it my best shot.