Miss Kjelgaard
By Jenny Powell
On Wednesday afternoons we played the door
of the concertina lift
to carry us up to the first floor
where a gaggle of sensible shoes
changed into serious pink,
hair no longer wild and loose.
Lines of tender tunics under
her spell, immersed in movement,
lost in the steps they could all remember
except for me. Clumsy hooves
of a dainty donkey, prancing
their own way when I needed to prove
I could be the next Fonteyn or Pavlova.
Bird of Paradise flower farewelled
a snivelling child but over
and over I danced for her
en pointe down the darkest streets,
then leaping from one lamp post to another.
Jenny Powell's latest book, co-authored with Anna Jackson, is Locating the Madonna (Seraph Press, 2004)
