A responsible grown-up – you can count on me
most of the time
I am a focused woman moving through tasks
but sometimes
I must toss aside those form-fitting hats
and slip into the little girl who wore pink tights and who tapped on a hard-wood floor

in an old house, into a dance studio transformed.

There, in that space, that I can still see, hear, and smell,
I fell in love with the click of my heel, the lift of my toe, and the grace of a twirl,
as I became one with a song and with others spinning along.

I left that space long ago, but my dancing spirit has never left me –
she took me to places that without her,
I never would have ventured to go.

She kicked high and shook pom-poms low;

she danced on stages during high school shows;

she danced at clubs…