Modern Dance
Is he the person I thought he was?
Am I the same at work as I am at the dance class?-
where he's teacher and I'm pupil
and we move in an ocean of women.
Whatever he says concerns the dance -
no mention of office plans where's he's my junior,
and I bring him forward, leading by example.
The stag jumps, the pirouettes - they are so liberating,
so new. One day I'll know them.
For now my rugby shorts and top, bare feet
show that I'm strange to all this,
trained to another game.
He says that I'm motor-programmed for rugby,
that I need a different mode of movement,
but he never tells how we move in another life.
Is it forgotten or denied?
The parts of this dance are easy.
We elide. I slip past as he glides
and goes home to his family.
Colin
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