Dancers in Diaspora

Dancers in Diaspora  
 
Ukraine where a couplet of souls  
flies like kites on wings of smoke  
whose good karma is earned  
by the sacrifice of small pleasures  
for the formless form of true finesse
 
She wears her tutu proudly  
for her last pirouette before the exodus  
At that moment, her face  
looks like that of Helen  
sailing the lake of heaven

who for the first time  
sees the Isle of the Blest  
where she will share  
the afterlife with Achilles  
 
over tea steeped in a funeral urn  
from their native Ukraine
Her nervous twitch from when she was a girl
has returned like the goblins
that hid beneath her bed.
And she taps her shoes
like a street performer
busking for a bus ticket home