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Poetry: The poet's dance

by Jessica A. Tucker

Stepping into the spotlight
Onto the bleached white page
A pen tip takes it place gracefully,
Top left, upon the stage.

In the glare of the lamp's soft light,
Hand and pen together hesitate
Waiting for their cue
Poet and dancer, assimilate.
One step forward, two steps right,
Leaping and gliding across the stage,
Letter by letter, consonant by vowel,
Another verb conjugates.

From there between paper lines
Word by word, a sentence evolves
As the pen tip amusingly
Leaps and bounds along.
From deep within the poet,
A pen tip grasped with masterful poise,
delightfully playing, bounces
Like the trained toes of dancer's feet.
In quick staccato steps, rhyming nimbly as it goes
The pen tip dances in sentence, structure,
And simple words of prose.

Then from the front stage, right,
In the light of the lamps bright glow,
The pen tip, poet, and the dancer,
Say good night with a gentle bow.

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