In the music box a delicate
melody plays; she watches the plastic
figurine twirl, her tu-tu
suspended in air.

Her grandmother gave this to her
when she was a young one
in the early 1920’s.
Grandmother was blind and

only spoke Yiddish but she
handed this music box to her
with such pride that language
did not matter; it was only

the sound of the melody
taking them far away,
away from Chicago slums
to a concert featuring

the beautiful ballerina
in a standing room only show
perhaps in Paris or Moscow
and because it could be anywhere

Grandmother and granddaughter
could understand each others’
speech through the arabesques
and leaps of the thin wispy wind

of a girl dressed in pink.

01/20/2006

Posted on 01/20/2006
Copyright © 2024 Lisa Marie Brodsky