“Who don’t hear does feel”
Old People
We danced the dance of the damned,
we flirted with our demise;
we danced all night, past midnight,
we danced until sunrise.
The dance we danced was frenzied,
we danced and orgied full flight,
whirling wild like dervishes,
we danced and danced all night.
The dance intoxicated,
we soared, flew high, as a kite
with a short tail, we dambled,
we danced and danced all night.
We limboed low, we jumped up
high, high as cloud nine, not quite,
toasting almost-great talent,
we danced and danced all night.
We danced the dance of jamettes
to songs too sordid to write;
‘cultural illiterates,’
we danced and danced all night.
We wriggled and we writhed,
yes, we win’ed with all our might,
the ‘elders’ taught the children,
we danced and danced all night.
In costumes and disguises,
grand designs that were so trite,
with camouflaged indulgence,
we danced and danced all night.
We decked the halls of banquet
where indulged the appetite,
well garbed in gaudy finery,
we danced and danced all night.
While many beamed with pleasure,
with few faces true contrite,
in masks of hypocrisy,
we danced and danced all night.
Mindless we moved like heathens,
performing some pagan rite,
libations of our life-blood,
we danced and danced all night.
Round shrines and altars we danced,
and thought idolatry right,
sacrificing our own souls,
we danced and danced all night.
We danced in trance of transience,
hardly room was there for fright,
in halls devoid of conscience,
we danced and danced all night.
We danced the dance of chances,
we revelled in our delight,
romped with demons and devils,
we danced and danced all night.
We danced the dance of jumbies,
deeds of wickedness and spite,
dealing with deviant deities,
we danced and danced all night.
Like lagahou and diablesse,
dark creatures of human plight,
and douens, the infant damned,
we danced and danced all night.
We fluttered like vampire
bats in caves of stalagmite,
dormant by day, till twilight,
we danced and danced all night.
Yes, we danced the danse macabre,
made the babies’ futures blight,
berating the young generation,
we danced and danced all night.
While we were high on dancing,
some walked with weapons to fight,
spilling blood in the dancehall,
we danced and danced all night.
We spared no thought for morning,
as we danced till morning light,
cared naught, cared not for the cost,
we danced and danced all night.
The full moon ruled the party,
till the morning sun shone bright,
some were caught with trousers down,
we danced and danced all night.
For dark deeds done in darkness
did the light of truth indict;
debauchery’s consequences
our bare derriere did bite.
And then ballroom came crashing
down, we fell, fell from a height;
the mess made not a small splash,
it was not a lovely sight.
The cleaners carried torches,
not a broom was there on site;
they searched the glare, searched with care,
the debris to ignite…
We danced the dance of the damned,
we flirted with our demise;
we danced all night, past midnight,
we danced until sunrise.
Copyright ©2001 by G. Newton V. Chance
- G. NEWTON V. CHANCE
- George Newton Vivian Chance (Trinidad and Tobago) -- member of the Poet Society of Trinidad and Tobago, http://poetssocietytt.blogspot.com/ and the World Poets Society, http://world-poets.blogspot.com/ -- born in Tobago on 3rd March 1957. While residing at Rio Claro was inspired to write over a hundred poems at the turn of the Millennium. Hobbies include playing wind instruments, building computers, observing nature, reading and writing poetry. Believes that the power of a song is in its ability to evoke emotions by the marriage of lyric and music but that music without lyric can be just as powerful, that lyric without music can also be just as powerful, that there is music in the lyric and that lyric can be simple yet profound. Also, in this the age of computers, would like to model his lines after simple and efficient code and, analogous to Object Oriented Programming, achieve most of his imagery from nouns and verbs, avoiding the bloat and excess of unnecessary adjectives. This is what he aspires to attain in his poetry.
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