He has said

THIS is how the world will be.

He has looked to himself

to his reflection

to his shadow

and said, and believed,

the world is shaped around me

this is what the world is.

He has said it enough

now others believe

and the shape of his words is the shape of their worlds

And he is both the reflected and reflecting,

and the world tilts and bends and moves

as though he were gravity

as though his words were claims to the shape of things

as though he might be the shape of everything.

She has said, “No.”

She refuses to change her shape.

She refuses the change in the shapes that surround her.

She seizes the world in both hands, two eyes,

She seizes the world with her heart.

She says, “No,”

and defies him

denies him

She says, “No,” and she cries,

she says “No,” she defies

what weight he claims as gravity.

She shrieks, she laughs her grief, she flings

head and arms and denies what he thinks

And she dances,

she dances down his bones.

His rage cannot touch her, wild thing,

the world reshapes itself beneath her dancing feet.

her arms embrace the world

and her voice, ringing,

cascading

finds in the chaos

other voices.

They find each other.

They shape a new shape

and they are dancing down his bones.