Ballet

Watch 

the gestures of the bamboo forest

a thousand fingers of green hues

painfully pointing downstream, 

at each heavy blow of the wind. 

Feel 

their pain, 

dedication and devotion, 

that stretches their nerves 

that warps their form

Be 

the pale, thin girl 

taking ballet lessons 

from the wind,

her instructor, 

the old woman, 

grown strict, ruthless, unfeeling 

by the timeless, unyielding rules 

of motion 

of beauty