POEMS/ Dancer's Dream
Edna Eccles Beck, age 10
Dancer's Dream
for my mother
When you untied your toe shoes
and put away your tutu,
you took them off for good
although you did not know it.
You thought you could dance
a dance of love with him
in two step or in waltz
and that your pas de deux
or tango would never end –
you thought he’d raise
his steady arms, hold you
tight, and dance with you
across the coming years,
and never
ever
let you
fall.
This poem appears in Migrations (Antrim House, 2013)
for my mother
When you untied your toe shoes
and put away your tutu,
you took them off for good
although you did not know it.
You thought you could dance
a dance of love with him
in two step or in waltz
and that your pas de deux
or tango would never end –
you thought he’d raise
his steady arms, hold you
tight, and dance with you
across the coming years,
and never
ever
let you
fall.
This poem appears in Migrations (Antrim House, 2013)