Decay Constant
Margaret Ross
6"x9"
$8
from Decay Constant
Did you know
what
piece to save? I couldn’t see to. Did you
see anything light up that wasn’t sunlit? You weren’t
supposed
to watch the choreography for pleasure, it was
developed as ‘a science of behavior towards
others,’
strict exemplary manners
that the audience might live as if they lived
in Italy
or France. En pointe, the girls were
tangent to the ground by one toe only, even
that one
plinthed on wood and numb
to ever sharper stages of a pain interpreted
as stairs
you used to elevate yourself. She carried
vials of it in her pocket home and kept
it in her
desk because she thought it
beautiful, the mild blue specimen resembling
a flame’s
pale eye gemmed cool and steeping the dark
air of her room in washes that betrayed
no injury
or effort save for skill
describing grace so that we knew
from the
way the dancer raised her arm
how far her country was.
Margaret Ross received her MFA from the University of Iowa Writer's Workshop. Her poems have appeared, or are forthcoming in Boston Review, Claudius App, Denver Quarterly, and elsewhere.
