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


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