February 19, 2012:  The Lovely Dance

I wrote this poem and stole this title because of a wonderful memoir of grief and love I have read this weekend.  

The Lovely Dance

Five of us fill up the room,

Dancing, colliding,

Often forgetting

The density of our being.

Stepping lightly forward,

We glide past,

Keep at arm's length

An envious, dismayed quartet.

Ours is a solution pure,

Borne of love, exclusive,

Seductive sacrifice,

Apparent, yet imperfect.

You and I, holding hands,

Delight in the fluidity

Of our motion, but

Startle at what we've become.

From the two of us came forth

The pirouette figure surveyed.

Still, shared but not shared privacy

Seems selfish even if necessary.

A figure of the younger me

Wonders where I'm supposed to stand:

A place to be seen, but not seen,

A place where I can still feel free.

If that's the you I barely knew across the floor

Yearning for a fading identity,

I do not hear your voice

Through the whispers of the other three.

Two of us in the photo,

Five of us in the staging:

What's done for love, what's lost in love

When the music stops.