POETRY I ANXIETY
A Nutcracker Nightmare
A poem about anxiety
If she was a song, I’d play
her as the Nutcracker’s Battle
on an ebony grand piano.
Fingers glide across fifty-two
ivory knights to strike the sharps
as she enters the stage under
faint pink lights in a violet tutu.
Déboulé adagio, arabesque, petit assemblé,
en arriére, en arriére, balance, attitude.
Music swelling
waves incoming
a thief arrives
to steal her breath
as she twirls into fouetté
en tournant en dehors
and trips — her head slams
to the floor,
the music ceases
its call.
Her eyes rise to the crowd, a swirling sea of fidgets and blank stares.
Tiny crimson poppies drip
from her eyes and seep up
through maple floors and down
from the lights like melting
stalactites. She tries to escape
but the floor collapses
like an icy pond, a riptide
gushes and flows, pulling
her below its surface.
