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May. 11th, 2002 01:59 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
arachne8xMerengue Madness
A hand outstretched
a simple smile
I looked up and saw this small brown man
who was elder than I
by decades.
I was used to older partners
for the jitterbug
sweet older men
white hair
wrinkled crinkled faces
with beaming smiles
like sunlight through
the cracks of curtains
strong, determined arms
guiding me through my paces
I remember these fondly
even the lingering
smell of old spice
that latched onto me,
clung like burrs to my skin
stripped off only by a shower
the next day
does not mar the memory
of these gentle men.
We approached the floor
he enveloped me into a ballroom frame
the latin music
propelled our first steps
of the merengue
a dance that sounds
like a sweet sugary confection
belied by the intensity of the
beat
like a vise grip
his arms boud me
till our chests
and bellies touched
smashed together
this intimate contact
allowed me to smell
not the cloying scent of old spice
but old stale
cigarette smoke
piled on layer by layer
a wall several inches thick
This claustrophobic closeness
loomed
while faster and faster we moved
so close I couldn't see my feet
couldn't correct my steps
to stop the collision of our knees
crashing with each beat
a clumsy clamour
drowned in the sound
of guitars and horns
The music seemed to swell
louder with each
drunken revolution
blaring
each sound bouncing
back and forth
back and forth
back and forth between us
colliding with itself and
dying broken in two
As the song slowed
I thought this dance was ending
but no there was no release
instead swirling twirling
dazed and dizzy
we continued
like a tilt-a-whirl
each new circle
sending my stomach
into acrobatic feats
the stars of ringling bros
don't dare try
The smell of caked on cigarette smoke
continued to burrow itself into my nose
squirming and driving itself deeper
invading even the spaces between cells
until I felt I couldn't breathe
I tried to think of how to stop him
no one had warned me
I hadn't watched the safety demo
sure I knew what to do in the case of a water landing
but how do you stop a man intent on dancing?
I frantically constidered fainting,
stomping on his feet
andything that would stop this carnival ride
but each time I drew away his arms would only
bring me closer
one song ended
another began
the next song ended
another behan
that song ended
and quietly
with the split second timing
of a race car driver
I whispered "Estoy Cansada"
He released me
and guided me back to my seat
the cavalier gentleman
and his smile
told me the discomfort had been
mine alone
this monster
who seemed to be
dragging me down in
an endless spiral to doom
turned back into a sweet old man
with soft hands and
time etched face
in that instant
he seemed more human
than I can ever remember
feeling
A hand outstretched
a simple smile
I looked up and saw this small brown man
who was elder than I
by decades.
I was used to older partners
for the jitterbug
sweet older men
white hair
wrinkled crinkled faces
with beaming smiles
like sunlight through
the cracks of curtains
strong, determined arms
guiding me through my paces
I remember these fondly
even the lingering
smell of old spice
that latched onto me,
clung like burrs to my skin
stripped off only by a shower
the next day
does not mar the memory
of these gentle men.
We approached the floor
he enveloped me into a ballroom frame
the latin music
propelled our first steps
of the merengue
a dance that sounds
like a sweet sugary confection
belied by the intensity of the
beat
like a vise grip
his arms boud me
till our chests
and bellies touched
smashed together
this intimate contact
allowed me to smell
not the cloying scent of old spice
but old stale
cigarette smoke
piled on layer by layer
a wall several inches thick
This claustrophobic closeness
loomed
while faster and faster we moved
so close I couldn't see my feet
couldn't correct my steps
to stop the collision of our knees
crashing with each beat
a clumsy clamour
drowned in the sound
of guitars and horns
The music seemed to swell
louder with each
drunken revolution
blaring
each sound bouncing
back and forth
back and forth
back and forth between us
colliding with itself and
dying broken in two
As the song slowed
I thought this dance was ending
but no there was no release
instead swirling twirling
dazed and dizzy
we continued
like a tilt-a-whirl
each new circle
sending my stomach
into acrobatic feats
the stars of ringling bros
don't dare try
The smell of caked on cigarette smoke
continued to burrow itself into my nose
squirming and driving itself deeper
invading even the spaces between cells
until I felt I couldn't breathe
I tried to think of how to stop him
no one had warned me
I hadn't watched the safety demo
sure I knew what to do in the case of a water landing
but how do you stop a man intent on dancing?
I frantically constidered fainting,
stomping on his feet
andything that would stop this carnival ride
but each time I drew away his arms would only
bring me closer
one song ended
another began
the next song ended
another behan
that song ended
and quietly
with the split second timing
of a race car driver
I whispered "Estoy Cansada"
He released me
and guided me back to my seat
the cavalier gentleman
and his smile
told me the discomfort had been
mine alone
this monster
who seemed to be
dragging me down in
an endless spiral to doom
turned back into a sweet old man
with soft hands and
time etched face
in that instant
he seemed more human
than I can ever remember
feeling
