I've Been Behind the Curtain

Location

93021
United States
34° 17' 39.3972" N, 118° 52' 58.7352" W

I enter the theatre once more
Ready to watch the pink satin glide across the floor.
Only now I know what happens inside those shoes of satin,
the hard shank and box seize the toes and prepare to flatten.

The audience watches as the girls spin on and off stage
but they don’t know that those tutus are a cage.
The girls will starve until they fit inside
with their teachers poking their stomachs until they lose what was left of their pride.

They probably trained all year for this show—
Rehearsals, bruises, and bleeding that the audience would never know.
All those pirouettes took years to master
and their flexibility came no faster.

Despite their pain, the ballerinas always come out all ready to dance
and they flash every audience a smile with a sweet little prance.

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