I’m told fetuses jitterbug on sonograms, and I’ve seen
at least one diapered baby boogie, butt wiggling. I’m sure
that dancer in infancy must have been me, so let’s call
that Scene 1. Scene 2 opens at my third-grade sock hop
in the cave-like gymnasium—pre-pubescent days before
we divide into wallflowers and party animals. I’m too shy,
awkward, to ask a girl to dance. But by junior high, Scene 3,
I join the parade of sex-crazed boys and girls, lust drawing us
to rub bodies, the original mating ritual. First, a fast dance—
that unfettered freestyle expression of joy similar to a cock
crowing—followed by the slow dance, civilized foreplay.
Herky-jerky or clinging together, we turn dreamily
on a rotisserie of desire, feel intimacy without talking,
good practice for adulthood. Scene 4 opens at the prom,
a kaleidoscope of corsages, tuxedos, and gowns. We pile
into cars for burgers and cokes at the diner, and, later,
make out in Daddy’s Chevy. Marriage ends our juvenile
rituals as we struggle to find time for a night out or cash
for drinks and babysitters. In Scene 5, my wife and I attend
a party. To be neighborly, I dance with our hostess, try a fancy
move that spins her into a row of flower pots, causes pots
and plants to break, though thankfully, not the hostess.
My wife reprimands me. Next Week, we sign up for dance
lessons! We did. My dancing improved—but not the marriage.
Fast forward to Scene 6. My new wife, Julie, and I attend
the company holiday party each year, establishing a reputation
for being first on the dance floor and last to leave, but not this
year. My boss asks why. Matching cases of plantar fasciitis.
The inflammations eventually subside, but our tango never
returns. In Scene 7, Dancing With the Stars replaces our
moves. Julie won’t miss it. I opt for football on the other TV.
We never dance again, unless you count Scene 8—
our macabre waltz through three years of acute leukemia.
I hold her up to keep from falling, and she holds me up
with her courage. I haven’t danced at all since she died.
First appeared in Poetry Superhighway
Richard Allen Taylor, Poet 