Highwire Worker, by Julie Sheridan

Punctual Folly, by Goya (Spain) c. 1820?

Highwire Worker 

After Goya’s Disparate Puntual;
depicting a woman
balancing on a horse
balancing on a tightrope. 
 
In circus circles
I’m quite the draw.
Observe how I pull off
my pose of poise and diffidence,
an acrobat’s prowess.
You try doing this in a dress. 

With a force you’d never notice
the horse torques beneath my toes,
curvettes to the suede of my soffited sole
consoling her crested neck. 

But you notice the crowd
before you focus on me,
shirking aghast in the dark.
Their hearts in their mouths
as they’re dying to gasp,
lean in to be shown
deft, death-defying stuff. 

They’ve all paid to see
the fille and her filly
fall off in a folly
whatever else they may claim. 

So at least once a shift
I give them this;
misplacing the reins,
losing my footing
in a convincing swoon,
a surrender to biomechanics. 

As I hit the deck I know
I’ve put on a good show.  

Appalled, the crowd applaud,
clap and go home happy. 

Julie Sheridan

Julie grew up on the west coast of Scotland and fell in love with Spanish from listening to Gloria Estefan songs, spending her pocket money on pocket dictionaries. After graduating in Hispanic Studies from the University of Glasgow she worked in Edinburgh for a decade before moving to Barcelona in 2011. Her poems have been published in journals including Lines Review, Poetry Scotland, Poetry Ireland Review, Causeway/Cabhsair and PENning, as well as anthologised in Unbridled: Women's Poetry. In 2023 she won the Plaza Audio Poetry prize, was shortlisted for the Bridport, commended in the Winchester and awarded third prize in the McLellan poetry competitions. She's currently working towards her first collection.