Teach Me To Dance

Teach me to dance, my darling,
teach me to dance ....

not with patterned steps rehearsed
by straight-backed men
with short, black beards

not to ancient songs composed
as soulless tunes
with muted beats

not in starch-stiff clothes devised
by fearful maids
to hide our sex

not in vaulted halls designed
to quell our words
with echoed noise

not at tea-time balls conceived
to dull desire
before night falls.


Teach me to dance, my darling,
teach me to dance ....

in giddy reels of crazed delight,
in clumsy-limbed
entanglements

to breathless strains of whispered sighs
that taunt our hearts
to heed their call

in naked, shameless innocence
in which our selves
crave no disguise

on summer lawns, in winter beds
unthreatened by
all decency

at endless, midnight, moonlit feasts
that free our hearts
so we can dance

and dance and dance
and dance and dance.


Teach me to dance, my darling,
teach me to dance ....