Ode To Louise (1906-1985) Poem by Paul Kesler

Sleek needle
stabbing convivial space -
black music flows from the tossed face,
shoulders
stretched ecstatically,
contorted,
drowning floorward -
hips reeling frivolous passion outward
as the arched neck swoons.

Louise, knowing life
commingles in the music
of her gaze,
and flows in the
light cloak sewn
with the needle of her dance,
never ceases
to contemplate the darkness
toward which she spirals
like a dart hurled carelessly
from birth to death;

knowing there
is no net waiting
as she leaps from
note to note
on the half-finished score
of her desire -

Louise, whose wise divining of the
dance of life,
whirls through stages of
martyrdom,
step by glittering step -

like a lean tree unravelling,
like a tap dripping lightly -
like a fly that will never come down
until it's too late to be saved.