You’re on a white staircase when I see you in my dreams,
smiling like a cheerleader whose boyfriend just made the team.
I don’t know how you got from there to advanced psychic ballet
but if we leave the house by noon we might catch the matinee.
Oh, Alice:
I’m gonna be someone someday.
Ingrid, I can see you with your telescope on the roof,
searching for unknown asteroids and wasting away your youth.
Lots of stars are falling. Some fall in the sea.
Some just fall forever. Those are the ones like you and me.
Ingrid:
don’t give up so easily.
Meghan, you’re so maudlin but you have a right to be.
Your mother loved you sometimes; your dad, intermittently.
But you don’t need those people, although they gave you birth.
The stars will be your family, girl – your home is the whole earth.
Meghan:
the world is your church.
Betty, you’re a beauty such as I have never seen.
You shame the fairest sunset. You collapse the silver screen.
Your nightly elaborate ritual causes the moon to rise.
And the morning sun would never come if you didn’t open your eyes.
Betty:
this much I’ve surmised.