Yes, we did
ask to be born.

Not all of us, of course,
only the first few.

They must have bought in
to this round robin
duress:

the gasp,

the gnawing hunger,
then the actual gnawing.

Maybe they did it
the way we’d put on

a corset or toe shoes
one night

and feel fabulous.

To be able to repeat themselves
must have seemed

like such a thrill
at first.

But who were they
if not that trick—

that breathless
pirouette?