Here

Alice had no idea what Latitude was, or Longitude either,
but thought they were nice grand words to say. —Lewis Carroll

Here is the encyclopedia where I learn first position
Here is where I begin ballet: at 12, in a class of 6-year-olds
Here is where I get my period
Here is where I substitute dance for childhood
Here is studio “B” where I practice
Here is the professional ballet school I leave my family for
Here are the barre & mirror & Dame Valentina’s nail marks on my upper thighs
Here is the table where I abandon food
Here is the pointe shoe I kill a hornet with
Here is where I dance to “What a Feeling” and “Eye of the Tiger”
Here is the drugstore where I buy my first box of laxatives
Here is my bus stop between an adult store & a strip club
Here is the first boy
Here is my first Swan Lake pas de deux
Here is when I stop menstruating
Here is the dressing room’s square locker I fold into
Here is the fifth girl I fall in love with
Here is the playbill with my name in it
Here is the backstage entrance
Here is sophomore year when I drop out for a dance contract
Here is 77 pounds
Here I leave the ballet company
Here is where the audience sits
Here I read everything by V. C. Andrews
Here I only eat macaroni & cheese
Here I get rid of all the kitchen knives
Here is the surgery table where I have my breast reduction
Here I sit through summer school
Here I enter my third high school
Here are my cap & gown
Here I choose from over 150 majors
Here I decide on Geoscience
Here is the lab where I study rock formations
Here is a quartz specimen:

Density (2.5): Here weight is the amount of matter in a given space.
Here on this stool, I’m no longer a number; my scale no longer holds sway over me.
 
Cleavage/Fracture (No cleavage, irregular fracture): Here its fracture is seashell-like.
Here its plane is predetermined, where I don’t need to be; I’m more than the sharp angles of my body
(jaw line, shoulders, ribs & hips).

Color (smoky) & Luster (non-metallic, waxy): Here it’s dull & waxy like crayons.
Here it’s so dark in my palm it is opaque; I can’t see through it unless held to the light. It is more earthly
than ethereal. Here minerals are not what they seem; I am not what I seem. Everything becomes
transparent.
 
Hardness (7): Here the visual isn’t diagnostic; it is in testing its resistance.
Here it comes down to resistance against an/other (person, place, thing). It is the measure of the bonding
strength between atoms & not easily scratched, stronger than my fingernail (2.5), this penny (3), & this
piece of glass (6).

Copyright Credit: Ava C. Cipri, "Here" from Leaving the Burdened Ground.  Copyright © 2018 by Ava C. Cipri.  Reprinted by permission of Stranded Oak Press.
Source: Leaving the Burdened Ground (Stranded Oak Press, 2018)