We are bending,
rehearsing,
reciting,
and encoding.
We tell our tales
of Blackberrying and Cartoon Physics,
readily sharing
because any practice is worth
that shaking, churning feeling of presenting yourself,
bare, beneath spotlights.

Her

She waltzes on a tight rope

a tiny wire doll

She walks with winter,

sings of snow

and prays the birds will fall.

She counts the stars

three

two

one

as she swallows earthly light,

she spends ages running

sweet soliloquies in the night.

She listens to her inner Lady

spilling lies of perfect flight

and she sheds the layers day by day,

counting bones to make things right.