Dancing For A Stranger Poem by Patti Masterman

Discarded sandals, all loved out and thrown away now,
On a beach that doesn't care who we used to be;
Our lives feel disposable as carry-out trays.

Love plays with bored fingers of time,
Pulling at the strings of our lives; disinterested
But manages to untie our bathing suit.

With decades gone missing,
We can't remember exactly where we came from,
Or where we intended to be going.

We were excited by the idea of the journey;
To be going somewhere; anywhere; just to leave the old behind:
Now all we want is the familiar, but it's out of reach.

Our important questions got lost in returning echoes;
The people who used to know us best
Have all gone away, for the rest of the season.

And new eyes, that never knew us, are watching now,
As though we could still dance on demand;
Or merely at the whim of some stranger.