A window to the city streets
She reached into the cold and dark
She drenched her slender arms in snow
Her diamond eyes shined, apropos
Of hunger calculating, stark
The dancer calmed her body heat
A perfect pirouette en pointe
A sylphid sliver of the air
She borrowed from the undine sky
To calm her nerves and make them writhe
She let the snow float on her stare
To hide the pain of tired joints
And lo, the dancer raised her arms
She turned her face toward the dark
That loomed before the window bright
And in the olden house, her sight
Became some proscenium arch
And in the middle, there was god
It was made of dancer’s legs
A body cut of gentle forms
It danced inside the little void
She wound her body like a toy
Her silhouette limp and forlorn
Her pirouette the way she begged
She took a breath and started in
And made a tightened arabesque
Her ribcage purpled, striped and bruised
Her god at perfect form amused
Her god could drown her like the rest
But she would show it perfection
Adrenaline high heaved and died
Aching sigh moved black and blue
Body strained, contorted, dead
But the dancer moved her head
She pivoted to tight tendu
And tucked her tired heel inside
The child that it had birthed within
Brushed up against her manic beating
Heart and suckled from her veins
She smiled against the aching strain
She laughed so small, so feebly
And roared as she felt strong again
Her tendons, oh, they stretched and swayed
They dragged across her empty veins
Her muscles weakened at the seams
Her head about her like a dream
And when she put her foot to stage
Her vibrant skin broke, parted ways
Her face was open, bright and red
Her eyes the vibrant lights defined
Her swinging hair along her nape
The groping child to satiate
Inside her breast of purpled lines
Until she could not raise her head
But god descended on her form
It’s power in her empty space
And knit her crumbling body tight
So that the spotlight seemed to light
A grand adage, a triumph raised
She laughed and bowed into the void
Shanty Town 