BALLERINA ON A BEAM

She soars like a bird
in flight on a friendly thermal,
lifting her to planted feet
poised atop the narrow perch.

It’s four inch width is perhaps
enough for a bird’s talons
but is a perilous floor for
this graceful ballerina of the bar.

She balances her tiny self
one foot afore the other,
does a graceful back flip
to a handstand on the narrow beam.

A twist, a turn floats her to bared feet.
Arms stretch to fluttering hands,
half turn to one foot spanning the beam,
the second reached out in pointed salute.

With a dancing pirouette, she leaps,
legs scissoring to parallel flight,
powers forward along the narrow bar,
to dismount in planted balance below.

Gus Daum