Little Dancer Aged Fourteen

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Stephen Gibson

Little Dancer Aged Fourteen

 

         —Edgar Degas, 1878–1881

      In the National Gallery of Art girls imitate her,
      standing like her, mirroring the teenager’s pose,
      arms back, chin up, like Degas’ beeswax figure,

      the younger girls, especially, as each parent knows,
      their daughter wishing she could be that ballerina
      in her flat-chested bodice, tutu, slippers: her clothes;

      what she wishes, begging mom to take her picture
      beside this miniature beeswax figure, is to be her,
      to live the life she’s imagined for Degas’ teenager.

      Marie Geneviève van Goethem was a ballet extra—
      of Belgium parents, with older and . . .
      . . . . . . .
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Able Muse Write Prize for Poetry, 2021 ▪ Finalist