I Used To Dance

I just can't part with them
my two pairs of toe-shoes, now
forty years old
and (still) neatly packed away
in the box of memories
I can't dump, either.

"Maybe someday, I'll put them back on
and dance again"

Maybe I'll get back the chance
to audition for the Boston Ballet, too
like they requested of me
(in writing)
forty years ago, when
I hung up my dance shoes

....because....

Looking at boogers
and other fluids from the body
under microscopes
was far more thrilling
for my seventeen year old mind
than taking a chance at something
I was sure I'd fail at.

I made my choice
built my world
but I could have kept dancing, too.