J. P. Dancing Bear
Although I can feel my body crumble fall away
my spine is anchored to a bolt in the floor
to this end I am her eternal partner
sitting opposite to her holding the points of her feet
assisting her stretch she sighs
once I was a beautiful dancer and my skin is as cold as the moon
why I feel such guilt I do not know
her knee damaged long before I ever knew her
perhaps it is that I was not there
to watch her own a floor
hypnotize an audience
we are so many things
in our lives
the dust of my former self
accumulates into a new
arrangement
to this end she watches me
with a ready hand
she too is changing cells and perceptions
slough away to dust
the parts of us that loves
grow and replace not love but the house of love
those open doors that place
where we understand each other’s changes
where even in the darkest corners
we embrace the concrete and flesh
of what we have been
and are about to become