So Many Aprils

Misty Copeland (left) and Brooklyn Mack play Odette/Odile and Prince Siegfried in this year's Washington Ballet production of Swan Lake. It is the first time ever that two black dancers star in Swan Lake in a major American production.

Emily Jan/NPR

one hundred and fifty Aprils ago
at Appomattox
Generals sat apart
Grant's table, marble and square
and Lee at the front window, 
his small, round

after so much bloodshed
they were civil, speaking first of
serving together in Mexico
small talk, before the moment
Grant penned the terms

the officers would keep their arms
and their horses

the war was over
but not the fight

it would take one hundred and fifty Aprils

the war, the fight
so many Aprils
while we waited
with the Prince
at the lake 

for a swan to glissade

Élevé without the barre

Échappé and avant

do this ballet for us, 
Copeland and Mack
become Odette and Sigfried

swan and prince
bring us your light
to a stage that has been
until today
dark 


 




[Poem #9 for National Poetry month: In April 9th, 1865 Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox. Today, April 9th 2015 Misty Copeland and Brooklyn Mack were the first African American ballet dancers to perform at the Kennedy Center in Swan Lake.]