Praise song for the dancers.
Face buried in her warm bread smell,
I cannonballed into dreams of flying;
she kept watch with one good eye
trained on roaches in the ceiling.
*
As I cannonballed into the next flight
she said Just a little while,
good eye trained on roaches in the ceiling,
in the room beneath the church of the sisters.
*
Just a little while, she said,
bandage over other eye
applied by sisters after landing,
and changed it when she thought I could not see.
*
Bandage over blinded eye,
she left the bed when I slept
to change it somewhere where I could not see,
and then she danced.
*
She left the bed when I slept
for a basement where music played
and then she danced
with the women in a circle, and they laughed.
*
In a basement where music played
danced Leti, and Patrice, Maria and Janae,
these women in a circle and they laughed,
away from the men they had survived.
*
Danced Gina and Kira, Shondra and Renee,
and my mother, and I, for the time being,
away from the men we had survived —
and you should have seen her dance.
_____________
This one first appeared in High Shelf, 2019.