They surprise even me, these tricks 

up my sleeves, 

shifting around

and unfurling.

Grand plié, a staged pyre,

knee caps that clack 

with each footfall on wood—

but no: 

none of this is truth under fire. 

It is dancing in crisis 

while the mezzanine sleeps.

Should we not leave? Now, while the door 

is so many months 

propped wide? 

I slap my thighs, 

crack my ankles 

until I can’t find any riot inside.

Bow to the left,

curtsey to the right. 

J. Tommy White (they/them) is a multiply disabled, queer, and trans poet, performing artist, educator, and researcher based in the region now known as North Carolina. Their poems appear in Bat City Review, Frontier Poetry, OCHO, and elsewhere. White studied poetry and other languages at Temple University; they hold a graduate degree in public health. Twitter: @jtommywhite.