woodandhoney

 

Do you remember that day we were at the park?

I was watching you run through the water sprinklers

It was windy and hot

and mostly empty that late afternoon

but there was a mother watching her young daughter

and I heard the mother say “Go”

So the girl moved,

a dance across the water and concrete,

small leaps and points and pirouettes

And there was such grace in her thin sturdy limbs.

There was such delight in her form of boundless movement

Like gentle lightning in a bottle

(If such a thing can exist)

I have never known that type of beauty,

My own grace confined to the skirt I wore,

my own piece of sky,

Long folds of fabric billowing around my legs like sails

But still, there was this girl I would never know

The mother’s smile

and the dance through the water.

A dark pink bathing suit as majestic as any evening gown,

spin after spin,

her long brown hair swirling around her like a halo,

her body shining like a light

Tagged: poem