I trust almost nothing I hear about her, and only a portion of what she says about herself in her poetry.
This is not because I think she’s being dishonest when she puts pen to paper, but there are things she’s afraid to admit, even in the cryptic venue of verse.
In her most recent poem, she had taken a step back from her previous poem (in which she accepted fate) and seems to indicate that things are worsening for her.
She still seems to be in the Virgin Mayor’s camp but seems to suggest she might have to abandon him.
This may have to do with his legal troubles, or perhaps something beyond my resources to identify (an unexpected darkness) and she struggles once again to remain calm.
As much as her poem from Sunday seemed to put a positive spin on her surrendering to the inevitable, this most recent poem seems to say she’s still on the deck of a sinking ship with some new dark revelation making her lose faith as she plans her escape.
Yet, where does she leap?
All this comes at a time when she has managed to trickle her way into the Virgin Mayor’s brain trust, although it is still difficult to whom she has attached herself, and whether or not she still clings to hope and the man in her love poems earlier this year.
Trickling up doesn’t always get her where she wants, especially in that circle of scoundrels where it is every man and woman for his or herself.
You would think in a town as small as the Virgin Mayor’s town is, he would be the end of all of her aspirations, the top dog she can latch herself onto and let him take her for a ride. But in truth, there is no pyramid of power, only fiefdoms, with each of these flea-bitten scoundrels operating with his or her own sphere of influence, brought about by their connection to the mayor, of course, but not so much a matter of complete loyalty to him.
This is similar to the situation in our office where we have two owners at the top of the heap, and even though she apparently managed to trickle herself up into the good graces of our male owner, he was largely a fraud, someone who played top dog, but in reality, did very little to earn it.
He was always dumping his work on other people, then holding court in his office as if he really was important, while his female partner did most of the real work and held most of the real power – including power to give our poet a raise.
These two owners were constantly at each other’s throats. And while our poet friend managed to latch onto our male owner, who in his own right seemed to come after me, I had the good graces of our female owner, who tended to protect me.
It was her good graces that kept me employed after I informed them last summer that the poet had accused me of stalking her. Perhaps my five-page, single-spaced memo laying out the whole mess from what it started up to the point of my being accused helped give the female owner some insight into what her partner was going through as well.
Our poet got hired as a gesture of kindness by the Virgin Mayor. But it was also an opportunity for her to make gains, which she apparently did. But as with our office, her current situation has too many chiefs she needs to satisfy -- which is one reason why I think she is dipping her wick in the Hometown election, to help satisfy them as well as the mayor.
Her association with the Virgin Mayor gives her access into that small and exclusive club of power. But to stay there, she’ll have to prove herself worthy.
Still, while others in that circle have their own base of power, it isn’t quite the same as being mayor, and if he goes down in court, they will all have to seek life boats or start swimming.
The fact that they have “real” positions with legitimate duties gives them an advantage she does not have.
Each of them has come from some other place where they have a string of accomplishments, they can use to get new positions, where as almost all of her power resides with the Virgin Mayor. While she claims to be personal secretary to the mayor, and does one PR work for him, she is not the head honcho when it comes to public relations, and really has no previous government experience she can use to broker herself into another job.
This may be the reason why she allowed her PR boss to incorporate her in his campaign for R in the Hometown election. If R wins, our poet may get a job in Hometown, a huge step up from where she currently is.
I’m also told Joey D is looking to jump ship, has made inquiries in the town I cover and has asked to bring our poet with him – giving her a foot in the door of yet another municipal government. But wherever she ends up, she is going to have to deal with the power pyramid in that place and will have to start trickling up from the bottom again.
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