This Did Not Happen by Thylias Moss

This did not happen

although I have memories of it:
a doctor unwrapping a tutu
so I knew I was in a hospital
but one unlike any other
practicing strange medicine
but this strangeness has been effective

A hospital for dancers?

I was in pink,
sequined

I had been in a street,
an alley and

I was left there, tutu shredded,
I couldn’t dance

anymore.

No animals other than myself, so the animal
in me

emerged

but tried to hurt no one

else.