I dance under the imagined warmth of the moonlight,
Twirl from one end of the rose garden to the other
Until my head is spinning, spinning, with the
Stars like a laughing tapestry above my head.
I forget about funerals and fallacies,
Genocide and god under the moonlight.
I forget about yellow hospital walls and
Plates thrown against kitchen floors.
I am laughing and dancing and
Screaming out the lyrics to Blue by Joni Mitchell.
I am a child again, pink and earnest,
Swallowing down doses of happiness in eager gulps,
Holding onto this amber-soaked moment in time.
I have not let go of hope, not yet.
I remember my old ballet classes as I
Twirl in the roses’ hearth of curious crimson,
My childhood dreams and the old swing over by the lake.
Pure ecstasy, I trip over happiness accidentally that night
As I lift my hands above my head
And twirl to the dulcet tones of velvet.
Gracie Rowland ’25 is a staff writer
growland25@amherst.edu