The Dancer

What you need to know:

She was a dancer

A corps girl

With big dreams

And a bigger heart

But that was all

What she said:

Please:

Her voice was light and sweet

But with an undertone of panic

Please

I need more than this

I can't pay for the heating

Or the air conditioning

I can see my ribs

Under my goosebumped skin

When I toss and turn under the sheets

I think

This isn't what I'm meant to do

I'm starting to think that money is happiness

The Reaction:

Gasps

There was nothing to say

Those words were terrible

They went back to stretching

The Reply:

It was a soloist

In the end

Who replied

You say money is happiness

You think that dancing is not for you

But green paper

Food

Heat

That will not make you soar

Under the spotlights

With invisible wings

The Intention:

The words were true

Straight from the heart

But she had known too many soloists

To trust them

The Door:

It slammed

Behind her with finality

Barring her from

The smooth marley

The itchy tutus

The bloody toes

The Lawyer:

Pinstriped suits

Pens

Paper

Courtrooms with long wooden benches

That reminded her all too much of the dressing room

And happiness

The Building:

Squat brick

It loomed above

Swallowing hard, she ran

Before she remembered happiness

The House:

It was large

Marble

Polished mahogany

Echoes rang out

Her only company

The Closet:

It held the secret tears

Of remembrance

Of the stage

Of love

Of happiness

The Bravery:

The door creaked

The same way she remembered it

It smelled of work

Work:

That no longer needed her

She ran

The Crazy:

I’m done

Were her last words

At the law firm,

Anyway

I'm finding happiness

I'm Dancing:

The Let Down

Too old

Too fat

Too out of practice

Leave

The director had no sympathy

For a woman giving up

And he didn't believe in second chances

The Growing:

She was known as the comer

Every night

She was there

Not under the spotlight

But in the audience

Smiling

Realizing that the spotlight was just as beautiful

For them as it was for her

The Kindness:

Roses appeared in the mail

Good luck cards

All signed:

Happiness

Her shaky hand wrote

Until it could write no more

The Last:

It was Romeo and Juliet

Fitting

Though this time,

There was no knife involved

The Wish:

Her voice was a croak

A dying croak

The truest it had ever been

I never got the spotlight

I never got to soar

The End:

They buried her quietly

There was no fuss

Though there was a spotlight

Moving over an empty stage

Until the light worker turned it off

And the dancer lay silent

And the spotlight lay still

And she was gone