“Falling Apart at the Seams,” by Carrie L. Clickard

Apr 20th, 2018 | By | Category: Poetry

In black tie and shrouds
an audience crowds
into seats beneath bone candelabra.
They’ve come here to view
a rare pas de deux
known as the real Danse Macabre.

A pale spotlight beams
on the stitches and seams
that adorn the swan’s tutu and face.
She poses demurely
while a mummy securely
encloses her in his embrace.

Their first promenade
is decidedly odd
for his right leg drags stiffly behind.
And each piqué twirl
makes his wrappings unfurl
revealing what’s left of his mind.

On the third fouetté
her right foot flies away
but she bravely stays up on one toe.
And the mummy danseur
looks rather unsure:
Should he fetch it? Or just let it go?

When she “spots” it’s disturbing
and appetite curbing
for her neck spins the opposite way.
And her partner, I fear,
sheds an eye or an ear
every time he decides to jeté!

As her pirouette travels,
her neck seam unravels,
and a stitch or two more from her knee.
The bird she’s portraying
is clearly decaying
and won’t see the end of Act Three.

Their love is heartbreaking,
Her death scene? Breathtaking
and the audience cries out “Encore!”
Still despite the hooray-ing
she won’t be bourrée-ing
until she is stitched up once more.

The critic’s appalled
but the crowd is enthralled.
People line up for tickets in streams.
So now every night
in a brilliant spotlight,
they are falling apart at the seams.

————

Carrie L. Clickard is an internationally published author and poet. She credits her writing success to the firm beliefs that dragons are real and baton twirling should be an Olympic sport. In addition to her children’s books, Carrie’s poetry and short stories have appeared in numerous anthologies and periodicals including Myriad Lands, Havok, Andromeda Spaceways, Enchanted Conversations, Nightmare Stalkers and Dream Walkers, Spellbound, Haiku of the Dead,  Muse, and Underneath the Juniper Tree. For more information please visit www.clclickard.com. “Falling Apart at the Seams” first appeared in Andromeda Spaceways under the title “Dance Macabre.”

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