I dance Flamenco in a Slavic dress
I dance Flamenco in a Slavic dress,
I say my prayers in languages that
Prattle.
Some say, never forget where you came from.
Some say, know where you're going.
Some say, do both.
That's easy. Sometimes.
The difficulty lies in how to be.
Who am I? What am I?
I dance... I dance...Between rites and rituals, perhaps rapturously we'll pass the time that ticks like a
bomb...
Will I defuse? Illuminate?
(2015)
Poet’s Note
During graduate school at Princeton, I took Flamenco classes after two failed attempts of learning to dance tango as each time I would be told by the teacher that as I woman I cannot lead; Flamenco gave me more freedom as well as space. “I dance Flamenco in a Slavic Dress” is also about many cultures and languages that can coexist within a single consciousness and beyond. The poem steps into moods that gesture towards phenomenology and existentialism, questions of idealism and theories of the mind.