My Ballerina

Oh, ballerina, ballerina
In my lovely music box
Turn around and dance for me
Smile and play a song

Twist and smile and
Dance for me
Oh, won't you
Ballerina, please?

Dance when I open your coffin
Where you sleep when I need naught
Play for me a timeless tune
And smile as if it's painted on

Spin and laugh and play for me
When entertainment is running dry
Amuse me with your tulle and shoes
Play for me day and night

Then rest, held down and ignored
Till a laugh I do require
Rest in your soft pink tomb
Reined in until I need a smile

Then, ballerina,
Won't you please?
Do a song and dance
For me?

Won't you turn
On the point of your shoe
And play for me
That timeless tune?

Then, oh, my ballerina!
Won't you spin,
Faster for me?
Spin till you are dizzy

Turn, my ballerina!
Turn for me
In your box of tulle
And pink

Oh, don't slow down, ballerina
You mustn't slow
For you've only barely
Begun the show

Then twist, my ballerina!
Twist with your soul
For when you fail
We all shall know

My ballerina,
What is this?
Is this perhaps
Some paint that's chipped?

That smile, my ballerina!
It falls to pieces
Littering the clean edges
Of your prison

your face, my ballerina!
The paint is gone
Your cheeks, and eyes
And lips are wrong!

Your face is blank
and your soul is collapsed
And my ballerina, look!
Your song has elapsed

Oh, ballerina, ballerina
In my lovely music box
You won't turn around or dance for me
You can't smile or play a song

So I close you now, my ballerina
To rot in your pink tulle coffin
Though a shadow crosses as I close the lid
That deepens where your smile would have been