— after watching Man on Wire Like an acrobat in the spotlight of a darkened circus ring, or like Baryshnikov at thirty, easy in his skin, one graceful hand soft on the barre—close up, black silks billowing in the misted wind, he’s slender & erect, smiles as he struts the shivering cable a quarter mile above the city. But from below, he seems more human, a fragile speck against the stark immensities of sky & doomed towers. One step, one moment’s lapse, as he’ll explain, above death. Is this why he grins, why he lies down along the braided wires, one leg dangling over the abyss? See how he kneels— kneels!—and looks down at the wondering crowd. How can we help but love him? Even a transit cop who hasn’t missed much sounds awed: He was dancing. You couldn’t call it walking. Even the lover he’s about to betray still trembles, decades later, remembering.
Susan Aizenberg’s newest collection, A Walk with Frank O’Hara and Other Poems, is forthcoming in 2024 in University of New Mexico Press’s Mary Burritt Christiansen Poetry Series. She’s also author of Quiet City (BkMk) and Muse (SIUP). Her awards include the VCU/Levis Reading Prize and the Nebraska Book Award for Poetry. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in many journals and anthologies, including On the Seawall, Plume, Nine Mile, North American Review, and Blackbird.
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