Wednesday, October 19, 2022

It's Not Dance



The passion of the rat race ribbons

Greased for gumshoe detectives

riding high on metamorphosis

slipping over the canyon into the abyss

Was not the question in the coffee

when the clouds of cream stirred

your worried mind to think?

Mondays are always stuck in the mud

my tires spinning

into infinity

whipping the dirt 

into frenzied backpacks of schooling

which I never learned my lessons

lined notebook paper

holding me hostage

with a sharpened pencil

and the teacher's biting tongue

sour apples

the ballet dancer's career is not dance-- 

it's grace.

Look into the mirror, it's so flat that you could place your hand on it.

The world is round, ask a shipbuilder.

No use staring at the mirror

no use staring at your navel

Tie up the ballet shoes

and make a butterfly

hang a wing in shame

to your colors

your being

and your bang, bang, bang.

What is at the door?

Oh nothing, just a delusion of grandeur.

Tip him and he'll bring the car around.

Carry my luggage

swirl this mess into dice games

and crap shoots.

I'm just throwing sawdust at the moon now.



Image source:

Ballerinas on Window Sill in Rehearsal Room at George Balanchine's School of American Ballet

by Alfred Eisenstaedt https://www.allposters.com/-sp/Ballerinas-on-Window-Sill-in-Rehearsal-Room-at-George-Balanchine-s-School-of-American-Ballet-Posters_i3781711_.htm?PODConfigID=4990704&sOrigID=53680&upi=P43K8J0