Mannlicher Akt mit erhobenem Arm, 1910

Egon Schiele

Philippe Petit, New York, 1974

 

That was beauty. The Towers’
swanning years before,

they were props for the can’t-be-done,
as he walked, ran, lay down,

he danced on cloud and wire
(it might as well be water).

His other props, his friends, helped him prepare.
And though it broke them, it broke them,

they gave him to the air.