It’s how he taught her to dance,
placing tiny feet on top of
his plates of meat, spinning her
slowly round the room,
using muscle memory
to help her learn
and slowly, softly, she fell into rhythm
pirouetting on her own,
trusting feet to take her where
she wanted to go and so, on her wedding day
at the father-daughter dance
they both remember him teaching her how to fly.
Ellie Ness writes poetry for fun. She has been published most recently in Gallus, Specbook 24 and The Battlefield Collective's book Tales From the Southside.