Dégagé: A Self Portrait in Three Parts

// Kristen Zory King

1.  Watching myself was familiar, trained, as natural as taking a needle to a blister, letting
the warm fluid drain.

2. Here are my legs, split open mid-air. Watch the arch of each foot, strained rainbow from
ankle to big toe, calves flexed, thick, ripe as little oranges. Pelvis, tucked. Chin, lifted. Spine, wrung.

3. Twelve girls in a mirror, leotards dark, buns pulled taut, tights slid high past thighs, pubis, waist.
Somewhere, piano. Laughter from an open window.