William Rowden
“Quiet!”
There’s music, listen
to the sway of our bones
on the quarter note,
listen
to the whisks of footwork,
to the mariachi,
to the intimacy of our legs
pinwheeling over the tiles.
Quiet down, child,
and listen
to the chaos of the time step,
the pirouette.
Listen to life
in common time.
Don Mathis
“Dining for Dancing”
Back in the days of the great kangaroo scare,
she ate a hamburger for lunch.
Was it marsupial meat? She didn’t care.
She shopped for a red dress for a night
on the town. It takes a lot
to get dressed up for a night of getting down.
Later that evening, her and her date
dined on seafood. She had the frog leg plate.
And then the dance began.
She was on the floor whenever the band played.
She rocked, she rolled, she strolled, she swayed.
At one a.m., they announced the dance floor winner.
Did she win first prize
because of her lunch
or because of her dinner?
Tessa E. Matiella
“I’m the Lady in Red”
It’s me.
I am red.
“It’s Friday night,
And I’m the ‘Lady in Red’.”
Soft hair cascading around my face
And down my back.
Strutting,
I confidently move across the floor,
Waves of red silk
Glistening in the warm glow
Of the disco dance lights.
Swaying,
I move right to the beat of the music.
“Do you have rhythm?
Watch me.
See?
That’s
Rhythm, honey,
Flowing out of me.
You try it now.
Good! Good!
You got rhythm too!
Now,
let’s move to the beat.”
