I danced with my mother tonight

I danced with my mother tonight

And she watched me dance.

There will be a last time we dance 

Together

Smiling, laughing  

Or not 

looking at each other.

A last time she dances

Doing that thing she does with her mouth

Wiggling her hips, strutting 

Clapping here and there to the music

Her legs that no longer fully straighten or fully bend

still stoat, still move close to in time with the beat.

There will be a last time I dance for her 

Have her adoring mother eyes gaze upon me as if I were a gift of wonder 

she is beholding. 

There will be a last time 

I dance

A last time I turn 

And spin

A last time I hear music

And let all the rage and frustrations 

All the years of disappointment come shattering out 

I last time I roll and stretch on the sweet wood of the studio floor

And wrap my myself around the rhythm of the crushing beauty and pain

and then feel my arms 

My arms 

turn into feathers and wings

and float up 

and touch heaven