[i’ve always loved to dance]

by Jory Mickelson

I mean I’ve always
     loved to dance—
even though I was
     a pathetic little thing
loved the way it made me
     feel athletic.
At last & who doesn’t
want to rehearse the body
until it becomes
     an easy glamour.

Ballet’s the ultimate
     romantic vision, something
     painters never touched—
               and in spring how
the trees bend, sway
               with their sap green
leaves & new ways
               of being alive again.
It makes the world
               feel positively
     pornographic
with the rush
               of the adolescent wind