Ballerinas

Posted on 2023-08-09 by Bartholomew Barker

All little girls at some point
Want to be ballerinas
To color with joyful dance
This gray grown-up world
But life dissolves dreams
Debts demand payment
With money as easy
As lifting a skirt
Delicate limbs twist
To please hollow men
Watching their phones
Instead of breasts freed
For their approval
Rejection still burns
Livers overwhelmed
Eyes looking nowhere
The personal cost of business
For grown-up ballerinas

This year marks the tenth anniversary of my first poetry collection, Wednesday Night Regular. To celebrate I’m posting my favorite poems from the book on Wednesday nights, of course. Ballerinas was also published in The Round Up Zine, Red Light Edition, Fall/Winter 2017/18. Alas, it looks like that journal has gone to the great library in the sky.

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About Bartholomew Barker

Bartholomew Barker is an organizer of Living Poetry, a collection of poets in the Triangle region of North Carolina where he has hosted a monthly feedback workshop for more than decade. His first poetry collection, Wednesday Night Regular, written in and about strip clubs, was published in 2013. His second, Milkshakes and Chilidogs, a chapbook of food inspired poetry was served in 2017. He was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2021. Born and raised in Ohio, studied in Chicago, he worked in Connecticut for nearly twenty years before moving to Hillsborough where he lives and writes poetry.
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15 Responses to Ballerinas

  1. Gypsie-Ami Offenbacher-Ferris's avatar Gypsie-Ami Offenbacher-Ferris says:
    2023-08-10 at 08:14

    And some little boys too! 🫢

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  2. Cassa Bassa's avatar Cassa Bassa says:
    2023-08-10 at 18:15

    Rejection still burns – a complex and intuitive human emotion.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  3. berniebell1955's avatar berniebell1955 says:
    2023-08-11 at 03:23

    Your poem…and some reflections on the situation….

    http://www.spanglefish.com/berniesblog/blog.asp?blogid=16442

    Liked by 1 person

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  4. equipsblog's avatar equipsblog says:
    2023-08-12 at 11:16

    Unfortunately true description.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  5. Kitten Lada's avatar Kitten Lada says:
    2023-08-15 at 13:48

    Chills…up my legs and arms…

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  6. utopicdystopian's avatar utopicdystopian says:
    2023-09-09 at 22:27

    The depth of sadness in this is just so…

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

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