The Pool

Tonight I danced with water
For the first time
I walked into the pool area
On a business trip
At the Crowne Plaza Hotel
In Elgin, Illinois
Normally I would think:
I need exercise, ate a big lunch
Swim laps, tread water
But tonight there was music
Ballet sounding music
First I danced around the pool
On the well-laid tile
Feeling like a ballerina
Maybe for the first time
Since Urvashi's teaching me ballet
I was alone. With architecture, music and water
The dance led me finally to dip my hands in,
Scoop it up, kick it, splash it
I never danced with water before!
The ballerina steps into the hot tub
Dance with the seats, the bottom, the steps
The safety rails
I think of my step-daughter
Who dances often with poles, for a living
Possibly people misunderstand
The girlie bar dancers are likely getting high
On themselves and dance
Just like me,
My sisters making love to poles in every city
I play with water and music
The dance leads me to the big blue dinosaur,
A children's slide
I stand on it, rotating my hip
I see my feet. They look more like Urvashi's feet.
I want that. Maybe it's the exercises.
Everything about Urvashi's body is perfect.
I will judge my feet by how much they resemble hers.
I'm doing well.
The shallow end, my lower calves, progressing
Deeper water. The french horns and violins
Give way to a guitar.
I dance for the half-elliptical stairs at the 3.0 mark
I touch them with my feet, my hands, I turn and sit
My gluts lightly on them
A toe wraps around the safety rail, the pole.
Then the other foot circles it, embraces it
I slide my hand along it
I lower my breasts into the coldness
Because they want to touch the half-elliptical top
step
I spread my legs, the hard tile edge slices between
I push it closer.
The stairs are mine, they are my lover
The rest of you can be jealous.
I pet the regular tiles on the stair edges.
The music changes, I move away
Deeper, until I go en pointe
Finally light enough
I realize something about weightlessness in the water
has always made me feel like a ballerina. I knew it.
But my arches cramp.
The feet are not strong enough yet.
I resolve to do Urvashi's work.
I creep on toes like Fred Flintstone
I work on making them strong now.
I notice the atmosphere lighting
It is the gaslights of the streets of Paris
Where ballet was invented.
I get out of the water
I see reflections of the Paris street lamps
I decide to walk down that street
Paris is here tonight
Little Paris, maybe, you know
The one in Elgin, Illinois.
I am regal, suddenly. I think it's the music
Cuz I know all my past lives
All my ancestors were peasants
This I feel certainly
But I am the closest to royalty this line has come
With air conditioning, dishwashers
and the Crowne Plaza Hotel
Drops of water are my subjects
Falling off my fingertips
moving in their own dance
toward the floor
not really controllable
I notice that the tile is now wet, because of me
It was all dry when i came in
My subjects are spread across this floor
My influence is big, I see it everywhere
This is what Urvashi meant
These drops are my postcards, falling off my fingers
Dropping on the world
I am the queen of this world tonight
The blue dinosaur slide
The Paris lamps
The half-elliptical stairs
I slip on the frumpy pink housecoat
Consecrated by Urvashi's words
More loved than ever
It surrounds me
The hotel gives away free food
Amazingly what is free is the best food there is
Fresh fruit!
It's a miracle, my apple/orange dinner
Fit for the pool queen of housecoats
Dropping words on you
I write