'Before The Cake' and The Snarky Reader

At a steady pace down a long, beautiful hall.

            (‘I was walking down the street’, then.)

Several wall lamp leagues mark the distance to nothing

            (‘nothing’. Good subject.)      

else but a gaggle of bright lavender about a tall, white bell.

            (Pixies?)

Distinguished now from the rest, she separates

            (Yolk from albumen. Thus, the ‘cake’. I think I follow…)

from the color grouped at the ballroom entrance; now a chapel.

            (Wait. A gaggle of colorful sprites become a chapel?)

She walks toward, leaving the fishbowl conscious calmly,

            (Tipsy, then. Wonder what was in that fishbowl.)

cleaving from the group to gather.

            ( [buzzer sound] Sorry, you can’t ‘gather’ what you’ve ‘cleaved from’. I’m finished with this crap.)

In taffeta, silk and lace. As perfect. Walking alone.

            (But, I have to say. As perfect as what? A shoe? Can opener? Side-effect warning pamphlet? No wonder she walks alone.) 

Then, strangers pass, most different in dress and situation.

            (Sport mascots? I’m sorry I kept reading.)

Nods are exchanged. Nothing is said.

            (I guess at least someone’s privy to what’s going on here...)