m review — poetry — triassic — ballerina
Finalist in Poetry — 2006 M Review Writing Contest
Triassic
by Valerie Watrous
I marvel at cat-sleep, as he
curls into a silent dream, no
longer plush and indolent, but
treebound again, a hunter's heir.
With each tail twitch, memory ticks
years backward. He savors the crunch
of mouse in his teeth, sweet and rich,
seasoned with ancestry.
This dream dissolves in our own mind's maze.
We are outcast amnesiacs, having swallowed
instinct with scraps of meat off spears and sticks.
We seek the lost as if it were new — in labs,
bits of metal buried under dirt and time —
until we can wind our way back to a
hissing jungle in the paw of night,
where cats are again kin, the warm-blooded world
all whiskered, tiny, skittering around
in the cold tooth of a giant's shadow.
Ballerina
by Valerie Watrous
Limbs folded upward into elegance,
suspended like optical illusion.
I try to trace the invisible lines,
the pressure points, the puppetry of will
that holds her in place
like human kanji.
The others must read her
like an ancient myth —
a lost race of nymphs whose
supple bodies beguiled gravity
out of its work. If I cease to dance
from here on out, I wonder
if I will ever watch a curtain fall
and see the roses in the star's arms
without imagining them also
blistering into bloom
beneath the satin shoes.
Art aches under each placid gaze.
You may think their faces mask
a concession to illusion, but then
you are not really searching.
Even this has limits —
one slip and she folds, a dried leaf
that has waltzed the breath of
every last lilting breeze
on her way down.
Valerie Watrous of Portland, Oregon
"Triassic" is an M Review 2006 Poetry Finalist.
Valerie Watrous is a senior at the University of Portland. She is a double major in English and History. Her favorite poets include C. K. Williams, Louise Glück, and Mary Oliver.
