(for A. who plays the Italian Concerto by ear
jumps from fourteen thousand feet
reads Tolstóy and Dostoyévskiy
roams mountains and gorges
dives from high cliffs
and saves lives)

the chesty bonds watch as
she cat-springy on cyclist legs
with the shoulders of a leopard
places her hands on the rubber mat
her body a half-open jack knife
and pivots to the vertical
to come to a handstand
locking like a machine
the upright blade
of her legs

she
stands
motionless
upside down
on her two hands

my
heart
turned
upside down
with love for her