Nancy Scott

BALLERINA*

Listen to Audio Version.

She's eleven or twelve, twigs and knobs,
sitting at the table with friends—pink
leotards, hair netted and pinned into buns.

They dig into plates brimming with salad.
She, pale as snow, cuts her burger
into bite-size pieces.

Arm arced, she says, Watch me. Forefinger
and thumb drop a morsel toward her open
mouth, and miss. The girls giggle. Nothing

passes her lips. What remains on her plate
she submerges in a water glass,
sprinkles salt and pepper.

Child, it hurts to watch you.
Who will catch you when you stumble?

As if on silent cue, the girls grab up backpacks,
jostle, disappear, scraps of high-pitched
chatter linger.

*First published in author's book, One Stands Guard, One Sleeps (Plain View Press, 2009)

Nancy Scott has been the managing editor of U.S.1 Worksheets, the journal of the U.S.1 Poets' Cooperative in New Jersey for more than a decade. She is the author of nine books of poetry; her most recent, Ah, Men (Aldrich Press, 2016) is a retrospective of the men who have influenced her life. Before turning to writing, she was a social worker for the State of New Jersey, assisting those who were homeless, disabled or who had mental health issues to find permanent housing in the community.