Poetry: “En Pointe” by Samantha Jones
En Pointe
On a regular day
circles of skin detach
over pockets of fluid
and toenails compress—
black and blue.
On a bad day
the body feels retaliation
that rivals the violence
of breaking in
new pointe shoes.
Rounded edges hammered
into the square box,
shank snapped, sawed
and split to three-quarters,
the scraped and darned
satin toe twisted in a
splash of semi-dried soda.
A softened and sticky shoe
made ready to grip the floor.
My hands clutch the bar
a little too hard—my feet,
are far from classical.
One relevé at a time
I jam these low arches
toward a standard
they will never achieve.
About Samantha Jones
Samantha Jones (she/her) lives and writes in Calgary, Alberta, Canada on Treaty 7 territory. Her poetry recently appeared in The Anti-Languorous Project, Blanket Sea, CV2, Grain, MixedMag, New Forum, Parentheses Journal, Room, and The /tƐmz/ Review. She is of mixed Black Canadian and European settler descent. Find her on Twitter: @jones_yyc.