The Dance To tell you the truth (for a change) I’m sick of all our namby-pamby couples friends Who can’t go anywhere in single file And frown on us – Albeit in the nicest possible manner – Because we live in separate homes Without either a toddler or a dog And refuse to march in lockstep or salute When they start in on kindergarten As the gateway to a doctorate One evening I had had my fill Not just of wine (the only way to stomach The displays of their togetherness in everything From soup they sip exchanging spoons To sluts in babysitters’ guise They’d never let within a thousand miles Of their darling’s ten-foot pole) But of the way they danced – Which was apart Because they’d been so busy Striding side by side along a graded road The graceful twirl and glide to changing tempi Left them lurching in the lurch and on their own They tried to make the best of it With smiles and winks across the gulf Occasionally A twitch or two would hit the beat By chance It was a sorry sight So Ursula and I decided we should take the floor To show them what the strength and suppleness of Two charmed into one by choice Might do No matter where we’d spend the night ________________________________________________________________________ Emanuel E. García, Sinking In, One Hundred Poems, 2013 |