Words for My Daughter After Watching Her Dance to ‘Girls’

a poem by Dante Di Stefano


Sigil yourself inside the electric
wiring of this poem. Hotwire this car,
this Prius, this Ford F-150,
this Tesla shot into space and tumbling
toward the sun. Careen through median,
ghostride this whip, do donuts around cop
cruiser and hooptie alike, exceed speed
limits and sway, dear girl; you are shimmy
and shake, you are pirouette and jeté,
you are windmill and flare and Buddha spin
leaping the linoleum to the thump
of Beastie Boys, your blueberry-stained face
shining with such sudden inventories
of kiss and kiss and ragweed waggling bliss.