Dancing Deer / Ballet in the Snow
Without music, slowly
they enter stage left
watching us, watch them.
Feet unbound,
shoeless uncostumed dancers
they pirouette
forelegs gracefully waving
hind legs supporting
lithe bodies.
Nibbling low cedar limbs
eating while dancing
on a snowy stage
aspiring to weight gain
not anorexial aesthetics.
I’d seen the Bolshoi
Russian Christmas eve
in Moscow, spellbound
convinced the performance
was once in a lifetime.
Now the dancers come
performing for free
outside our window
no posters or marquee
no printed program
they arrive unexpected
and leave at will.
Nureyev and Nijinsky
cannot hold a candle
to deer dancing
on hind legs
in a Vermont forest.
Randy Kritkausky
February 18, 2022
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