"The Dance"

Pirouetting delicately around the outskirts

Avoiding center stage

until a clipboard call.

The tentative performers approach.

Clasp hands.

Lock eyes.

Fate's choreography dictates

a matched pair if only for this dance.

Smooth coupling despite unpracticed steps

an unintentional manifestation of the rhythmic, primal, pulsing beat.

Dance, restless spirits!

A command performance for two.

Chiffon billows; ribbon-clad feet whisper

of sweet progress across unfamiliar terrain.

She leaps.

A gazelle gracefully defying gravity

He watches her

breathless.

They spin together--electric, wild frenzy.

Stillness follows

Then a cleaving.

Souls' weary revelation:

futile partnership.

Divine synergy birthed from anonymous perfection--

a mere remnant of two vagabounds entwined.

No curtain call, no flowers

honor an illicit pas de deux.

Petal-soft tears

the only salute

for a bittersweet, ephemeral program.

--R.S. Apanewicz c. 2005