Teri Browning The 2River View, 6.3 (Spring 2002)

What Hides

Degas, you so loved a dancer
that you gave her immortality
in scenes of flight through air
and it doesn't matter which way
you portray her lips or mouth
or legs in lift so high
that we don’t see the marketing
of female flesh, the blood and sweat
waiting in the wings—and all there is,
is grace and tilt of head that hides
a tear, spiraling to plop on stage,
exhausted tear, sister of the one
who never made it to the show,
the one that Degas hides.

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