She Has To Learn Her Dance

She can sing the song
almost rhythmically accurate,
knows her place on stage,
tried on her costume four times now,
once with the makeup,
but not yet with the hairdo and pins;
a lot of stress for a four year old
and pressure,
but the world won’t wait
for the unready
and neither will her older sisters
who’ve been there.
Her picture will go on the wall with theirs
in costume, smiling, beautiful.
Memorizing all the moves
and no peeing on stage,
both significant challenges
for the thirty inch tall group;
she has to learn her dance and
not because she’ll be in the ballet someday
or because there are jobs for dancers
but because she has to start early,
because she needs memories of a great moment
when she’s a grown teenager,
wondering if she can go outside,
since the world is unkind to the unprepared.

Rosemary Moeller