HD22-21

On The Way To The Ballet
By Nolo Segundo
The old ladies march
Onto the elevator,
Steadied by their canes,
Each a shrunken frailty
Wrapping an unending
Soul—they are going
To watch young people
Dance dances of grace
And beauty, while re-
Calling their own beauty
Long dissolved in the
Acid of time. Yet, they
Are happy—I even joke
With them as I lean on
My own cane: “Come
Ladies! Let’s have a
Foot race!” They all
Laugh, as the young
Girls within their
Tattered frames
Flirt with the potent
Young man hiding
Behind my time-
Marked mask.
For a moment
We all feel a jolt
Of that spark
We call life.
Nolo Segundo, pen name of retired teacher and late-blooming poet, L.J. Carber, 74, married 41 years, has in his 8th
decade been published online/in print in 39 literary magazines in the U.S. U.K., Canada, Romania, and India. In 2020 a
trade publisher released a paperback collection titled THE ENORMITY OF EXISTENCE and in 2021 a 2nd book, OF
ETHER AND EARTH. Both titles reflect the awareness he has had since having an NDE whilst almost drowning in a
Vermont river at 24 and has tried to put into many of his poems: that each of us has a consciousness that predates birth
and survives death, because it exists beyond time and space--the immortal soul.
Halcyon Days - 2021 Issue 22 | 15
Milan Noga reco—stock.adobe.com