Requiem For A Dancer

Leaves upon an autumn breeze
Grace upon the fluttering notes
Grace me within ballet slippers
Grace, airily, a feather floats

Woman in melodic motion
Captive moment, audience seized
To face you costumed in this dance
Is the only time I feel at ease

The waltz plays harder, faster now
Costumed in performance fashion
Clinic ballet, gown and slippers
Harsher notes now call my passion

One woman's trauma
Is another one's drama
One woman's stage
Is another one's cage

From first steps to the hearse, rehearse
Fantasy cloaked as hologram
Ballet script within the purse
Sugar Plum Fairies by milligram

How the aching and the shaking
The dance of fashion, live stage fright
A step out of tune have left me
Naked under passioned spotlight

In medical percentages
Choreography in measure
My spirit floats on feathered notes
Ease of the breeze my pleasure

One woman's trauma
Is another one's drama
One woman's stage
Is another one's cage

I take a pill to keep from weeping
I take a pill to keep from shaking
I take a pill to keep from sleeping
I take a pill to keep from waking

The dead go dance among the living
The living dance among the dead
We all traverse the middle ground
Go dance among the living dead

Script in hand, slippers on feet
Stage graced with death, with life, with breath
I take a pill to keep me dancing
Mask of life on a face of death

One woman's trauma
Is another one's drama
One woman's stage
Is another one's cage

I file my claws, sharpen my fangs,
Feed the bats, and water the lawn
Apply the mask, makeup, and bangs
'Cause I know the show must go on

So here's to dancers, living and dead
You who wear your souls upon your feet
Remember always, look both ways
Before you step into the street

Leaves upon an autumn breeze
Grace upon the fluttering notes
Script in a head pirouettes
Grace, airily, a feather floats

 © John Kennan summer 2013