Ode to Diana

Diana is
golden skin and hair
and green eyes with a slice of gold in one
a grin with one corner of her mouth turned up
and capoeira when she’s too drunk
to drive or remember--

She is the sum of a blond mother
with perfect English grammar
and a heavy, charming accent, still beautiful
and voluptuous;
and a balding father, small, intense,
a full moustache and a habitual silence
deep enough to communicate worlds.

Diana dances,
a kinetic expression of non-stop hips and knees and feet
tapping complicated salsa rhythms;
a high hitch of leg and low,
sensual bachata dips;
her head down, lips parted,
slow tango steps and legs like taut pins,
tapping, sliding, in tiered lace.

Diana is kisses of greeting on cheeks,
hand flutterings when agitated,
raspberry beer for sexy evenings
and the insistence that her happy
birthday be sung in five languages
before the candles are blown.