FORGIVE THE DANCER

Forgive the dancer.

While the Pakistanis and Indians are testing bombs underground she is tying on her long skirt, lacing her shoes, pinning up her hair.

While a little boy shoots up a cafeteria full of kids in Oregon she is stretching out her legs, bending her back, arching her feet.

While three white men in Texas drag a black man behind their truck she is tuning her heart and her breath to the heart of the music, the breath of the drum.

As bitter rain burns through the trees she leaps into the light, opens her pliant arms to all the wonder in the world.