women who watch ballet

i never could
----remember
the details of
-------the liberation
----- quiet
played over in my mind
-----yet it gives deniability

i lean in as i
-----tell them i’m in
--love with the dictator
in front of us
----some people dance

beyond the balcony
you could
-------read the suffering
---wrapped in the stars

we made progress
----- in the century
before
-- but a series
of characteristic
troubles
-----left us worse
off than we used to be

we wondered if we
----should go back
----and actually ponder
the other side
--but looking over the
myth was beyond mentioning