Degas painted my daughter's heart long before I was born

the little girls belong in the thick early morning sun their slight legs not even casting shadows before the bar feet apart ''hide the thumbs plier/push up up up up grow two inches - down relever/up - come down yes, yes'' the music lighter than their own bodies they are surprising themselves the forms and postures their bodies so readily accept carry deeper than memory the urge to fly to have less than toes touching ground.