Just at the moment maybe the perfect moment
my first MRI—back trouble
in the waiting room
a message I’ve gotten before
(Haven’t you?)
* * *
The dancers are spread out
in three rooms in the Phillips Collection, they
strain in rehearsal rooms
stretch at the barre
lounge in the dressing room
not on stage not yet
not all that pretty
these Degas dancers
* * *
About the message in the waiting room
a girl moved so quickly like a black comic book blot
from her chair to the MRI van
me waiting for my disk
(no pun intended)
me wanting to read The American Scholar
(can you imagine, in a waiting room?)
but the man waiting for the girl
he wanted to talk, was dying to talk
And what could I do?
After all I was reading about
the brain and empathy
* * *