Let's Dance

I always wanted to dance
wearing lace crinolines
and dresses of pink satin.
I wanted to wear white tights
and pirouette
on my happy child's toes.
I wanted my body
to sing
and laugh
and rejoice
in the celebration
of movement.
Lucky for me
at a very early age
my mother set me straight:
"Girls like you can't
wear such things.
You'll look big as a house
and people will laugh at you.
You can't dance!
It's best you stick
with cooking and sewing
and learning to be a wife."
And so I did.
But I always longed to dance,
so now that my own children
are grown and gone
I am learning how,
and I wear pink tights
and lycra leotards in happy colors,
and I dance around my house
while the child in me
wears her lacy crinoline
and pirouettes gracefully
beneath the stars
laughing
in the wind.

Other Names

There are other words
for it
you know.
Hunger is not its only name.
It can be anger
or fear
or wonder
or joy
or terror or strength
or aloneness
or rage
or anguish
even if
it only feels like hunger.
It has other names.

both poems by
Ruth Hendricks
Scarborough, Ontario