BALLERINA
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 The Book of Possibilities |
We were walking down
A cold road
The wind
Covered the moon
The little ballerina shivered
In the wind that covered the moon
Locked in this schema
Locked in this strange dance
Not wilfully
But
Because she didn't know anything else
We walked
My head reached his shoulder
draped in black
hard black
no higher than his shoulder
And we were alone
except for
The ballerina with the delicate face
I was nervous in his company
The presence of this tall man
The wind hid the stars
Ruffled my thin coat and hair
And the pale powder blue of the ballerina's
dress
And he noticed that
I shivered
(I tried not to
tried to stay
straight and immobile as I walked
To stay as far as possible
My head from his shoulder)
The ballerina saw
and
Drew back into her cloud of dark hair
As the man reached out
And his coat
the black coat
Wrapped me in his warmth
His salty smell
his damp perfume
And the ballerina crumpled to the road
Lying still on the sheet of ice
I
Couldn't tell if she was hurt
or dead
And he held me as we walked
And I tried not to shake
I didn't pull away
His grasp was so strong
his hold on
my arm under the coat
I couldn't even look back
To see if the ballerina was all right
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