Suddenly the girls we knew from grade school,
the girls we kissed and touched behind the church
under drab corduroy uniforms
paraded past us in black lace tights
onto the stage for the chorus line number
in the spring play
at the women’s high school academy,
proud of their breasts in low cut tops,
hair teased and sprayed, dazzling Dianas
of rouged faces and powerful voices
high stepping with sexuality and pizzazz
Suddenly we felt dumb and diminished,
we college boys in the male roles
with false mustaches, cowboy hats
and clumsy western boots,
stricken and weak and overwhelmed
to see them spiraling into goddesses
in a single night, singing, hoofing, as though
they were born to star in the flashing lights
Afterwards at the cast party at Caroline’s house
smelling of sweat and lust and faintly of flowers
they hugged and kissed us again and again,
suddenly laughing, victorious, happy young women
stronger and surer than they had ever been
after school on those grim afternoons in the days
when we still called musicals “operettas”