Jamie and Nureyev

Jamie and Nureyev

 

Knowing nothing of ballet

but what it must demand

to shape the bodies

of children of men and women

if the split: to gain 

nothing 

but

air

without the aid of any 

machine

or billowing silk

I'd say

maybe that's a way

to summit euphoria

the muscle of it 

becoming even more

weight

-less

and this and this

man to man unpinning

the slippers or lifting

the brush

after the last possible stroke

and the lactic tremble

of coming down before

the euphoria shifts

to dysphoria

before it is even

stepped for

and letting it all

f

a

l

l

bones and shoulders

and stitched umbilical

caves and mouth foam

and the tongues

and fingers

or at the very

least, tips of them

each that touches

something absolutely

unnameable

on the way

down.