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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
LATIN CLASS, by JAY ROGOFF First Line: Herschel will be pissed Subject(s): Dancing & Dancers | |||
Herschel will be pissed I know. We missed last week and have practiced exactly once even after I cobbled some Van Dyke Parks and Steely Dan into a fake merengue tape. In a panic I tell you it's hopeless but your Presbyterian genes insist so we try to look invisible among the couples tripping over each other in the high school gym and shrug when Herschel's cool skeptical eye stares us down. He seizes Christy his partner by the wrist and they whip around each other in an impossible new step hips driving like some insane Caribbean machine and the others' jaws drop yeah right so I can tell we're all on an equal Anglo footing. We walk it through fast way too fast he cues the tape and suddenly it's carnival for spastics screaming out for correction Fellas! Fellas! oh the wrist this way the hip that and now I'm not stepping on your feet and the planetary whirl and shift of weight and tension in our arms feel fine as I catch you in the orbital swing and watch your eyes light up Caribbean while Herschel bails out of our lurching path his smile I imagine barely suppressed at us the Dominican champion estrellas orientales as we dip dangerously only to rise up in the East. Copyright © Jay Rogoff. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...FAMED DANCER DIES OF PHOSPHORUS POISONING by RICHARD HOWARD ROSE AND MURRAY by CONRAD AIKEN A DANCER'S LIFE by DONALD JUSTICE DANCING WITH THE DOG by SUSAN KENNEDY SONG FROM A COUNTRY FAIR by LEONIE ADAMS |
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