Not Dancing

The only way to not know how to dance

Is if you’re sealed up in a wall of “don’t”—

“Don’t move like that, your timing’s off,

You’re moving up while everyone is moving down

You haven’t learned the steps, you’re slow and stiff

Don’t be a fool, an inadvertent clown.”

But every atom understands the grace

Of flowing in its chain of interaction

Each receives its impulse in its place

And sends it on in effortless reaction

The way to learn to dance

Is to let the impulse grow behind the wall

Till even it must move, must join the music

And all your being answers to its call.

©Wendy Mulhern

December 28, 2011