gliding across polished floors
sticky with rosin from worn pointes,
satin dimly shining as a reminder
of its glory days, long since faded,
now bent and broken, satin dull and
frayed from hours spent in practice
while smiling faces hide pain as
toes ache and blister breaks and
bleeds while muscles scream and
joints ache and bones begin to
break from repeating steps into
perfection for the stage lights
that take the mind away to new
worlds far from pain,
drowning all with music
'til th esounds of applause bring
minds back down to earth and
the reality of pain and exhaustion
and the sound of pointes on
woden floors only to soar back
to those heights in the next
act and once over, to go back
to graceful arms, and poised backs
gliding across polished floors
on pointes rosined to they don't
slip for hours on end 'til they
are broken beyond use by
repeating steps into perfection
to go again before stage lights
that take minds away