Time to put on my favorite playlist
Something I can shake and shimmer to Something to aid me in pretending I'm someplace far, far away
The babies sleep inside their cartooned sheets upstairs
As music plays softly downstairs
And they dream of dancing, too

My mother twirls away her worries in another part of town
She's so beautiful as the beat moves through her
In perfect synchronicity with her pain
I long to catch the spinning hem of her skirts as she flies around the room
To leap next to her as she pirouettes the angry marks from her skin
Catch her as she's whirling with the nagging reminder of what if
And make her stay

When the last note of some nameless song echoes into vacant air
I try to mirror her, the way I imagine her in my head
I try to laugh at you and your ominous, invisible presence next to our back door
And the frightened feelings you left lingering behind

Permanently bruised; we dance so we won't cry
Irreparably broken by you, my mother and I.