On my way to dance class

On my way to dance class
I
nearly killed
a bicyclist.

It wasn’t
our first time.

Him
on his black bike.
Me
in my red Volvo.

The two
of us
dancing our tango.

You don’t remember our first dance.
You never saw me.

You at the stop sign.
Me behind you.

How vulnerable you were how trusting.
But you
were thinking
none of this.

You danced grand jete glisse grand jete

black swan in flight.

While I
watched waited looked
right left right left
hesitated right left right left right

and then finally
went left.

Straight into a truck.

Smashed. Spun around.

Who knew it would be so hard to breathe?

“Do not move,” they said.

They covered me with a white sheet shattered the windshield
wrenched open the doors.

“Do not move."

I did not move.

But I
remembered you.

And
I danced.

— Paulette K. Fire

Music by Noah Fire

PHOTO CREDITS

Unsplash.com
Samantha Weisburg, Preillumination SeTh, ketan rajput, Alonso Reyes, Kazuo ota, Ahmad Odeh, todd kent, Victoria Volkova, Hulki Okan Tabak, Juli Kosolapova,

Pixabay.com
Skitterphoto, Yogendra Singh, CleoDieLeeu

Pexels.com
Konstantin Mishchenk, Tim Gouw, Yogendra Singh, cottonbro, Ferdinand Studio, GEORGE DESIPRIS