By terry
Date: 26 August 2000

When We Danced


An intimate stranger,
When I reached out my trembling hand that night
Half expecting a polite, but firm no thank you
To my offer of a slow dance,
I was offering much more than a moment of music
And being held by another.
And by some mysterious miracle you knew that.
But How?
Was it the glint you saw
Gazing deep through the windows to my heart?
Or might it have been the catch in my voice
Which wanted to be scratchy
And two whole octaves lower than usual?
Making me doubly nervous
As if my palms were not sweaty enough.
But however you intuited such perfect knowledge
It doesn’t matter.
Because when I looked closely at the wonderful,
Magical woman before me
I knew.
Knew volumes about love and desire and need.
It was in the flutter of your eyelashes
As you gazed down, too shy by far to look me directly in the eyes.
But I caught the magic anyway
As you peeked up through long lash
Moment by moment.
Beat by beat
Of my overly stimulated heart and mind.

And when you took my hand,
Your trembling
Counteracting mine in a way that gave us both stability of movement
And of thought,
I felt the thrill
Of a thousand butterflies
Fluttering amidst a thousand candles
Burning, loosed in my mind
Threatening to carry me away
In embarrassed lightheadedness
Had I not focused my thought
And concentration
On the rosy blush of your cheek
Exalted by the glow I saw there
Springing from my presence
My touch
My regard in all the small ways of love.

And we danced
Oh, God  how we danced.
Swaying body to body
And closer and closer
Closer than the taunt skin of my face
Stretched to perfection
By the grin on my lips
By the secret smile on yours.
And as my skin tracked across yours
Friction a delightful orchestration,
Building toward a crescendo
That we both awaited,
Breathe held,
In delightful anticipation of something greater
Than we ever imagined might be.

And as the music moved toward its climax
And we moved toward our own of a different sort entirely
I knew my heart was sealed to yours
Forever fated to be one forever
Freely given and accepted by an intimate lover
Stranger no more.

May I have the next dance?
And the one after?




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