Dancer
At the center a figure
dances. Around him the
bubble of the world spins.
Fragments float and fall,
reflections and objects:
gate, lightbulb, plant and bird.
A foot raises, a mouth gapes.
Cornets and lines of crops
moon launches and petroglyphs.
Dancing the world into being, dancing
the end. Continuous beginning
out of continuous decay.
Exhausting, exhilarating,
exhausting, creating order
out of a chaos of sticks and gravel.
Juggler, the man keeps the world
in the air, will not let it crash
will not let it sling into chaos.
The mind tires, the body falters.
Who can keep a world alive,
keep a world from breaking?
What man can do it?
Dancers stumble and lose hold.
Their mouths go slack.
Turn then to the one inside the man
who speaks from the dancer
through a hidden ordering
who shapes his dance
—Sarah Webb, 9/7/20
published September, 2020 Just This
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