The Dance Poem by Keith Langdon

As though alone, I lead without resistance
as we dance to the randomly selected songs
of Johnny Rivers, James Taylor, Don McClean,
Paul Simon, and the Beatles.
I softly sound the familiar phrases -
so foreign to her -
words that draw from me a latent melancholy,
set to music my adult sons only tolerate
when they visit.
Her trusting head nestles in my shoulder,
left hand lying along my back,
and she is silent -
although an occasional spin and closing dip draw her closer,
and induce a spontaneous laughter and contagious grin
that peel away years like a wound unbound.
Finally Vincent drifts from the room into the starry night,
and slightly fatigued,
I carefully release her from my encircling arm.
But love overwhelms fatigue,
as the tiny arms reach insistently upward,
and I hear
“Again, Pappaw! ”

And so again we dance.