Young girls gather at stage door,
feet turned out, their own
worn toe shoes in hand,
eager to capture autographs
on sweat-stained satin.
My mind is full of the one
I have just watched float
across the stage, a fine-bodied
flying thing so light
I could almost make out
her wings. I think
of the short life of a dancer's
career, a fleeting span
like that of a hummingbird,
a dragonfly, a moth. My child
was one of those girls
fluttering around stage doors
as the dancers exited, drawn
like damselflies to the light
of each dancer's singeing flame.
Tamara Madison is a California native and retired educator. She is the author of three full-length volumes of poetry, Wild Domestic, Moraine (both from Pearl Editions) and Morpheus Dips His Oar (Sheila-Na-Gig Editions), as well as two chapbooks, The Belly Remembers (Pearl Editions) and Along the Fault Line (Picture Show Press). Her work has appeared in the Writer’s Almanac, Sheila-Na-Gig, One Art, Worcester Review, and many other publications. Read more of her work at tamaramadisonpoetry.com.
