Edgar Degas | Dancers in Pink
DEGA’S KEYHOLE
Almost blind
with a somnambulist’s
white stick as a cane
a street walker
in a spas’ search
desperate for first light
with an eccentric smile
hands me a Degas print
on a snowy Paris night,
before a jazz rehearsal
to appear on stage
yet I witness
on this print
elegant dancers
in pink chemise
thinking of the painter
taking refuge
with champagne
in hand
at the ballet doors
behind these mirrors
fixing his ‘stache
for an evening’s
light pleasures
with a teared napkin
from the cold
over his dour complexion
with an unexplained kiss
of surprised insouciance.