Bella

They call her Bella, 
and she glides across the stage 
with practiced elegance and grace
performing steps with artificial ease.

Once she had a dream of being 
someone’s prima ballerina, 
and she thought, if she tried hard enough
she just might find the way,
but now she's stuck just playing lead
in the longest running
single act ballet.

The audience is small, 
and doesn’t know her at all,
— the girl she keeps behind 
those black-as-midnight eyes.

They only see the woman
that they’ve painted on the bulletin
pasted on the door, and they never 
hear her cries behind the roar 
of their self indulgent praise
while they fail to realize that without her, 
the show cannot go on,

But she stays, despite her weary feet,
while the only voice that matters 
simply whispers from the shadows in the wings 
— and calls her Babe.



january 2005
Janet Reid





Awarded by Friendly Musings ~ January 23, 2005