Nijinsky’s Sister
by Mercedes Webb-Pullman

Write me a poem
about Nijinsky and his sister –
leave out the mad dead brother,
just show the two pitiful children, taken
and raised by the state, trained
to dance through agony into grace.

Were they lovers? Or did his lover
seduce her? Hers, him?
In that confused triangle
who was the puppet-master?

Describe the manipulations,
write me of beauty and confusion
you who know about the other,
the unacknowledged sex
whose lessons are impossible and wrong.
Did she leap, as he did,
hoping somehow to break the law
and stay suspended in the air?

Make him love her; at least
write me that.

Bio: Mercedes Webb-Pullman: IIML Victoria University Wellington New Zealand MA in Creative Writing 2011. Published in: Turbine, 4th Floor, Swamp, Reconfigurations, The Electronic Bridge, poetryrepairs, Connotations, The Red Room, Otoliths  and her books Numeralla Dreaming, After the Danse, Food 4 Thought, Looking for Kerouac, Ono and Bravo Charlie Foxtrot. www.benchpress.co.nz

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