My Daughter Started Walking
—For Prince, and for Ariana
the day you glided over the divide.
The walls in the hallway where
she tottered between her mothers
throbbed a thousand different beats,
the floor a stage beneath her feet,
air a spectacle of glitter and swirl.
Could she divine the wisp of hands
that guided her as she reached
beyond the bounds of her body
for something to steady her sway?
Each fall spoke to an artistry
that could only have been choreographed
in your deep-rooted tradition
of perfection, as if you had rehearsed
this encounter hours before she woke.
Back & forth she walked, light
streaming purple through the window,
promise of rainfall, of wildflowers bursting
into a melody of colors. She walked,
each step sturdier than the last,
rejoicing in the voice of your songs.
Julie Weiss´s debut chapbook, The Places We Empty, will be published by Kelsay Books in July 2021. In 2020, she was a finalist in Alexandria Quarterly´s first line poetry contest series and a finalist for The Magnolia Review´s Ink Award. In 2019 she was a Best of the Net Nominee. Her recent work appears in Montana Mouthful, Mothers Always Write, Sheila-Na-Gig, and others, and she has poems in many anthologies, as well. Originally from California, she lives in Spain with her wife and two young children. You can find her on Twitter @colourofpoetry or on her website at https://julieweiss2001.wordpress.com/