Portrait of Boy Dancing
by Lillian Starr
He puts on the dress
and dances.
I admit I am in awe.
He has lightness.
This is to say, he is light
and lightened.
I don’t know where
the glitter comes from,
but it’s there.
He is Ginger Rogers in Swing Time,
miming Fred Astaire,
one hand on imaginary shoulder,
one clutching sharpened air.
He is Dita in her sparkling
glass. He is a pageant queen
practicing her speech:
Miss,
how will you change the world?