Little Big Dance in 3 Parts

Your Sunday Poem

LITTLE BIG DANCE

I.

NICE vest, says the dad at my side

It’s light green, old, but the kid

Told me to wear it and she’s right

Because the green strips glow.

THANKS, I say and we stand there

Watching our daughter’s dance

Under the spinning, glowing

Light orbs and flashing bulbs.

AND we know, we know that some part

Of them is lost, is already lost to us

My daughter is her own self

Her joyous, laughing, confident self.

II.

THIS is our third Little Big, and our last

The first theme, Disco, the second, Space

This year, Glow, so everyone wears white or is

Fluorescent, swirling colors everywhere.

MY eyes begin to ache from the lights,

So so many light sticks, I have three in my pocket

My daughter wears a homemade cat mask, whiskers

This way and that, colorful beads and braclets.

I’M able to use her outfit to keep an eye on her

From across the floating and blinking lights,

A tiny kitten in a sea of white and yellow and red

Jumping on her tip-toes, always above the others.

III.

FINALLY, we ask one of her teachers to take a picture,

Her and I under the ballon and ribbon arch,

Like the two photos of the past years,

I get down on a creaky knee.

BUT she reminds me it’s the wrong side,

The shiny chain she made me dangles from the belt loop

On the other side, so we switch positions and she

Makes sure the charm is visible.

MY arm around my daughter, there in a school gym,

The music and glowing still in the back of our eyes,

One last time, Little Big, one last time Daughter Dad

She smiles, she laughs and she’s gone.