Seams

The icicles look like feathers.
Somewhere, the design of deception,
making it look easy became everything.
The audience sees a swan, a princess, air
interrupted briefly by stretch on the way
to suspension. But there are years behind
each balance, blood and bulimia and endless
repetitions of releves, blisters and breakdowns
and shaking screams laced into the shoe
and twisted into each turn. You are
the first to see the stitching
and love the skin beneath the melt.